Spark of the Animagus
by Trojan Rabbit
Summary: Harry has an accident at the Dursley's that changes his life, will be major plot changes. Strong Harry, Harry/Daphne or/and Susan
1. Chapter 1: Privet Drive

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor will I ever

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue: Privet Drive<strong>

Privet Drive was a 'normal' neighbourhood and the residents liked it that way than you very much, it was on this very normal street that something very un-normal was happening in fact it was in number four Privet Drive where the Dursley family lived.

You see the Dursley family had a secret, a very secret 'secret' which they hid from the rest of the world, what is this secret? Well let me tell you, it is a young boy who goes by the name of Harry Potter; Harry was different from everyone else on Privet Drive, in fact Harry was different than anyone else in the world… but nobody knows that yet…

Harry's life so far had not been an easy one, you see in the four years he had been alive he had lost his whole family three months after his first birthday and was placed with his aunt on his mother's side of the family. Things went downhill from there as it turned out his mother and aunt were not on the best of terms with each other, in fact his aunt was jealous of her sister…

When Harry's mother Lily was younger she was close to her older sister Petunia but then one Severus Snape who lived near them at Spinner End informed Lily that she was a witch, no not the green skinned type, who had the ability to use magic. At first this wasn't too bad as Lily had only done accidental magic a few times but when she turned eleven the family received an unexpected visitor.

This visitor invited Lily to an exclusive boarding school in Scotland which catered to those of the magical persuasion. It was here that Lily and her sister Petunia started to drift apart, Lily and Petunia's parents were reluctant to send their youngest daughter away for most of the next seven years. In the end they did let her go which is why every time she came home for holidays they gave her most of their attention.

Petunia only saw this as favouritism on her sister's behalf, she was jealous that she couldn't go and learn magic and that her parents almost ignored her when Lily was around, this jealousy over time turned into anger then it turned into hatred, hatred of Lily and hatred of magic.

Unfortunately for Harry this hatred didn't disappear as they grew into adults and started their own families, Lily who still loved her sister never got the chance to try and make up with Petunia and Petunia was not strong enough to let go of her hatred.

Petunia ended up marrying one Vernon Dursley who had had previous bad experience with magic, though at the time he didn't know it was magic until Petunia told him…

It was when Vernon was going to an interview for a university placement; he stopped by in the toilets on his way there only for the toilet to throw up the contents of the last several dozen people who had paid it a visit, then a couple of people in robes showed up carrying wooden sticks. One of the strange people, a young blond who the others called Gildory, pointed his stick at Vernon and said a nonsense word followed by a story almost expecting Vernon to nod and go along with it, let's just say he wasn't amused.

So as it turned Harry had been left with two relatives who to put it lightly didn't like magic and to make it worse the Dursley's had a child of their own less than a month older than Harry himself. Dudley, Harry's cousin quickly learned that if he did anything wrong it would be Harry that was blamed and punished, not only this but he was also praised for being cruel to his cousin.

At first when Harry had been dropped off with his relatives it wasn't so bad as not even Vernon and Petunia expected a one year old to do much but he was always given Dudley's hand me downs and less food than his cousin, he was also put in the smallest bedroom in the house… well it became a bedroom because that's where he slept in 'Harry's' room under the stairs.

As time went by and Harry grew he was given chores to do around the house, nothing impossible; at first it was just cleaning the floors then when he was four they let him tend to the garden (the back garden so nobody could see him).

Harry had been having a bad day, compared to his normal bad days, it was his cousins fifth birthday and he had to get up earlier than normal to make his cousin breakfast (cereal and toast as he wasn't trusted with the stove yet). He hadn't be allowed to eat more than one slice of bread whilst his cousin who already weighed more than his aunt ate his way through two bowls of cereal and four slices of toast WITH jam on top.

Then Dudley had moved onto opening his presents whilst Harry had to clean up the mess left behind from breakfast, then even worse he was dropped off at Mrs Figg's the crazy cat lady whilst Dudley and his young friends went to the local indoor jungle gym, Harry really didn't care what Nibbles did for the third time.

When his Aunt reluctantly came to pick him up after they got back he was then made to clean up the whole house where the party had returned too and then Harry made a mistake and accidently stood on one of the toys Dudley didn't like which was a present from his aunt Marge, of instead of checking on Harry who was hopping on one foot from the plastic which shattered under his slight weight and scratched him he was punished severely.

There was no extreme physical abuse in Harry's punishments, he was given a few smacks on his bottom and sent to bed without anything to eat (and his foot still hurt).

So here he was lying in his 'room' the only sanctuary that he had when something happened that had never happened before, the light above his bed started to flicker on and off. This was the only thing that the Dursley's never took from Harry, the light in his room, he was allowed to turn it on and off as much as he liked (mostly because they didn't know).

Harry often used this to read ahead on his studies, after all when you have no friends, your guardians make you do chores whenever they see you and you don't have any toys there's not much else for a four year old to do than study which is why this light had become so important to him.

Not knowing that light bulbs only had a limited lifespan or knowing how to change it (if he could get a replacement) he watched with gloomy emerald eyes as the light flickered on and off in its final moments of 'life'. There was a lump in his throat and it almost felt the same as when his aunt cleaned out the spiders from his cupboard, they were the closest thing to friends he had.

He moved his hand almost as if he was going to cradle the light in his hand, only the heat stopped him from touching it; then there was sudden banging on his ceiling as Dudley decided to torment his cousin a bit more. Harry jumped at the sudden noise whilst the bulb swung due to the movement on the stairs.

*Smash* the bulb broke over his hand and there was one last flash, whilst it seemed like the world froze for a minute, then a surge of electricity entered the young boy whose short life had not been desirable.

Now this is where Harry differs from everyone else in the world you see just before Harry came to live with the Dursley's his parents were killed by a wizard called Voldemort on all hallows eve who was so terrifying that other magical people didn't dare to say his name, this evil wizard after he had killed Lily and James (Harry's father) brought his wand upon the one year old boy.

The evil wizard cast a curse that kills anyone it touches at Harry but he didn't take into account several unforeseen circumstances; he had just killed the boy's mother after asking her to move a side he gave her the option of living but she chose death to save her son and there is powerful magic in intent, the boy's father had also given his life in defence of his family, it was all hallows eve the night of the dead where death has the most power and finally Lily's pleading had upset young Harry which caused him to use accidental magic which slightly altered the spell heading towards him.

The curse struck Harry on his forehead but at first it seemed to not affect him until there was a flash of pure light radiating from the messy haired baby which destroyed everything except the black soul of the evil wizard which was absorbed by Harry, the body of his mother and the evil wizard had both disintegrated whilst he fell into unconsciousness. This caused an effect which was not visible to the naked eye; his magical core had almost been breached by the soul of the evil wizard but his core had managed to fight it off unfortunately this left his core unstable.

So as the electricity from that was going through the bulb was diverted and started to go through Harry his magic reacted and changed altering his body in the process. Harry's magic reached out into the source of the foreign power that was coursing through its vessel and started to feed on it, it bridged the gap between the circuit breakers to keep on feeding expanding past the house causing a blackout across Surrey.

The magic reached as far as the source of electricity which was Surrey Power Station which was is dual nuclear reactor producing one thousand six hundred and seventy eight megawatts of energy all of which was being drained by the young Potter's magic, the drain lasted a minute until automated emergency procedures disconnected the reactor from outside sources before it could cause a meltdown.

This unbelievable energy was used to complete the transformation of Harry's magical core from an unstable into a stable core. The remainder of the dark lord Voldemort's soul was expelled from the young boy's body dissipating into the air with an unearthly scream.

There was silence in the Dursley household for a couple of seconds before "what the bloody hell was that" came from the mammoth of a man Vernon Dursley as he got up from his armchair and headed towards the cupboard under the stairs bumping into unseen objects due to the darkness.

Not bothering to knock Vernon opened the cupboard door; inside was his brat of a nephew breathing heavily and coated in sweat. Vernon reached out to grab him with his flabby hands…as soon as his hand made contact with the boy he was thrown back by into the hall wall by a blast of electricity originating from Harry.

After Vernon had been blown back by the electricity more bolts started emerging from within Harry randomly scaring the walls around where he lay, Harry let out a scream of pain as his body slowly started to change.

At first his arms and legs shrank towards his torso his arms completely disappearing then as his torso and head started to change shape his body becoming more avian shaped. Wings started to grow out of his shoulder blades as his body changed shape blue feathers tinted with silver and white sprouting all over his body except for his legs which remained bare. There were two feathers creating a plume on top of his head and a spread of long tail feathers came out of his tail bone similar to an eagles.

Harry inspected himself after the pain had passed and cried out in surprise; his cry came out high pitched and was followed by a low rumbling. Harry spread his wings experimentally electricity sparking along his body and as he flapped his wings the electricity left his body to again strike the walls.

There were several popping noises from outside number four privet drive followed by several voices talking back and forth approaching the door. There was a couple of seconds silence before the door opened by itself…

* * *

><p>Surrey Power Plant is real and was built in 1972 for commercial use and the figures are taken direct from their website, it produces enough electricity for 400K homes<p>

Please Review


	2. Chapter 2: A New World

Wow what a great response thanks to all those who reviewed, I have taken what you said into consideration and I doubt there will be much more in the way of narration as it was just a prologue unless you were talking about my writing style then I'm not sure I can do much about that. I've also corrected any spelling mistakes mentioned but there might be a few more as I am checking my own work…; well onto the second chapter

* * *

><p><strong>A New World<strong>

Petunia barely had time to shout out in surprise from the entrance of the lounge before she was rendered unconscious by a red light issued from one of the intruders.

There were five intruders entering number four privet drive four men and one woman all wearing black robes with equipment fastened to them in various places, the woman who looked to be in her early forties seemed to be the one in charge as the others stopped when she motioned with her hand.

The five stood taking in the situation for a few minutes, taking note of the electricity that seemed to be sparking out of the cupboard under the stairs and the overweight man unconscious and twitching with small amounts of smoke rising off of him.

"Okay I think we've found the source of the problem; Shaklebolt see what's producing the energy, Dawlish attend to the muggle" the woman commanded with a stern voice.

A tall dark skinned man moved forward waving his wand in front of himself as a translucent barrier appeared an inch from his skin whilst he approached the entrance to the cupboard under the stairs, his colleague swished and jabbed his own wand to levitate Vernon effortlessly into the lounge from the wall.

Shaklebolt peered into the cupboard and almost instantly jumped back in surprise his arm moving to protect his face out of reflex as all the sporadic electricity in the cupboard seemed to focus on the interloper instead, luckily for him his shield lasted long enough for him to get over his surprise and move out of the way.

The leader of the group looked at Shaklebolt with impatience "Well?"

Shaklebolt picked himself up "Ma'am there seems to be some kind of bird in the cupboard, I've never heard about anything like this before but it almost looks like a mix between an eagle and a phoenix."

There was a slight movement from the top of the stairs that caught the attention of the group, it looked like a miniature version of the man they had found unconscious. One of the unknown men headed off to 'deal' with the spectator when the woman grabbed his shoulder and stopped him, she then made her way up the stairs herself careful of the steps over the cupboard.

She crouched in front of Dudley and placed a disarming smile on her square jaw "Hello child, my name is Amelia do you have a name?"

Dudley was gripping the banister rails tightly, his head (or as much that could fit) was between two of the rails as he had sneakily been watching what had been happening down stairs "I was told not to talk to strangers" he replied bluntly to Amelia.

"Ah but I'm not a stranger anymore am I? You already know my name. We are here to help your parents with the monster in the cupboard, a special police force, don't you want to help get rid of this monster and be a hero?"

You could see the cogs moving in Dudley's head and although he was turning out to be more of a villain than hero, he like all boys his age (not that they ever grow up) wanted to be a hero, not to mention he would be helping his parents by getting Harry into more trouble.

"It's Harry; he's a freak. He did something bad so he was sent to his cupboard as punishment, then there was a big bang and all the lights went off but I wasn't scared no wasn't scared but it was my bed time and I'm a good boy" Dudley was smiling towards the end.

Amelia's hands clenched at her sides but the expression on her face didn't change as the name Harry went through her head, it wasn't an uncommon name but she was starting to get a bad feeling about this "Hmm so this 'freak' Harry what can you tell me about him, what makes him a freak perhaps?"

There was a high pitched cry from downstairs followed by an almost thunder like sound, Amelia turned to look at what was going on for a second before giving her full attention back to Dudley who was now shaking in fear.

There was a slight stutter as Dudley rushed to get his words out "Well whenever anything bad happens it's always his fault and he has this strange thing on his head."

"Strange thing…?"

"Umm it's like one of them scratches that doesn't go away on his head but it's a funny shape like lightning" Dudley had moved back a little from the banister and was sitting scratching his chin thinking up words.

Amelia although she had suspected it was still shocked to find out that the wizarding world's youngest hero was living in a cupboard and had somehow changed himself into a bird, she could just imagine all the trouble this was going to cause not to mention the paperwork.

"You are a brave little boy aren't you, but you should let us take care of the monster now and go to bed" Dudley was a bit reluctant to miss the action but after a quick look at Amelia's stern face he quickly decided it was past his bed time. Amelia waved her wand chanting a quick spell at the retreating boys back to make sure he wouldn't wake up for the rest of the night.

Amelia made her way back down to the rest of her squad thinking on possible courses of action they could take, after all situations like this aren't in their manual.

"Alright team it appears we have a case of extreme accidental magic and the bird in there is actually a young boy coming up five years old, we will need to capture him so we can get him to headquarters and see if our department's healers can change him back. Smith, Jones you protect Shaklebolt whilst he tries to captures him. Shaklebolt make sure your wearing your protective gloves and use this to capture him" with that Amelia tapped her wand against the coat hooks by the front door; the coat hooks started to change shape until they resembled a metal wire cage three foot by three foot with a wire dangling from the bottom onto the ground.

The three men started to move towards the cupboard Smith and Jones a couple of feet behind Shaklebolt; Shaklebolt took a deep breath and was about to give the signal to his teammates when Amelia spoke once more "Shaklebolt, it might be a good idea to see if he would come willingly."

Shaklebolt gave a nod to Amelia and then another to his two guardians who spelled a couple of translucent shields in front of him; he moved in front of the cupboard again this time with a cage acting as a shield in front of him.

Again the electricity seemed to be drawn to Shaklebolt as he looked into the cupboard luckily most of it was diverted by the cage and the rest splashed harmlessly against the spelled shields.

As he crouched in front of the cupboard and held the cage open for Harry he spoke quietly his ruff voice carrying over the noise of the electricity discharging "Hello there little one, I know this is probably confusing but if you hop into this cage we can take you somewhere that can change you back into a boy."

Harry's bad day had now become his strangest day ever, it even topped the time Aunt Marge's dog was found at the top of the tree; he still sometimes got phantom pains from the hiding he had gotten that day. After all the pain had subsided from his transformation and he had gotten used to the changes to his body, a few stretches here and there, he had calmed down somewhat as his body was actually feeling better than he could ever remember.

He couldn't stop the electricity from going everywhere nor did he know if it was even possible to control and was somewhat upset about shocking his uncle and that other man that had looked into his room, he mostly felt bad about the other man but he'd feel bad about his uncle when his uncle woke up... Harry wondered if there were laws against strangling electric birds.

Harry looked toward the entrance of his cupboard again as the same strange man as before knelt before him, this time with a cage. Several things went through his head as the man asked him to jump into the cage the first of which was you must be joking; but as Harry thought about it more it was a chance to delay punishment and it seemed they know how to change him back…

Kingsley (Shaklebolt) was surprised when the boy turned bird started to move towards him, he would have laughed at how awkward it looked for the bird to try and walk like a person if it wasn't for the bolts of electricity being thrown out in all directions.

It wasn't cramped inside the cage but there wasn't much room to move around, it was effective though as all the electricity given off by harry was absorbed by the cage and earthed by the wire.

Kingsley moved back towards the rest of his team careful not to jolt the cage in his dragon hide gloves too much, he almost laughed again as the rest of his teams hair stood up due to all the static electricity in the air around Harry.

"Ma'am, with your permission I'll take him to the healers?" Kingsley asked Amelia

"Hmm go ahead, just ask the healers to wait until I'm there before they do anything, there are a couple of important things they will need to know" Amelia said whilst looking into the emerald eyes of the bird whose head was going back and forth between her whole team.

Kingsley gave a sharp nod and spun on the spot disappearing with a *pop* as Harry gave out a bark of protest due to the sudden movement.

Amelia looked at the rest of her team "Smith, Jones you two go and secure the area, make sure nobody enters the property" she waited a couple of minutes as they left before turning to the last member of her team "Dawlish, I'll need your help interrogating the muggles but whatever you hear must be kept quiet understood?" she spoke in a voice that brooked no argument.

Dawlish stood to attention and nodded to Amelia, satisfied Amelia went to interrogate one Petunia Dursley on the treatment of her nephew. By the end of the night both Amelia and Dawlish were pale with disgust and anger at the mental and physical abuse that had been dealt to the young boy who was responsible for the downfall of the last dark lord…

Much to Harry's surprise after the oaf holding him had finished spinning around there was a feeling of being compressed as if he were being forced through a rubber tube, it only lasted a few seconds before he was greeted by an office like room with windows showing a rainy day outside (even though it was late evening when they'd left) and a few people sitting at cubicles or standing behind someone else sitting in a cubicle.

Everyone in the office attention was quickly drawn to the two that just apparated in due to the light given off from the electricity not to mention the back end of the startled cry Harry gave off.

There was an awkward silence as Kingsley made his way across and out the office into what looked like a mad scientist lab; there were cabinets full of beakers with multi coloured liquids inside next to some gurneys and the whole roof was one big widow showing a bright sunny day which lit up the whole room.

Harry was brought to and placed on top of one of the gurneys by Shaklebolt before the tall man moved off to the back of the room where there was another smaller office for the healers.

It was a lady in her mid-thirties that followed Kingsley back; she had a gentle face that held a few lines of worry no doubt gotten from years of healing the critically injured, she listened to Kingsley as he told her everything he knew about Harry as well as his orders to wait for Amelia.

The lady knelt in front of Harry so they were eye level "Hello dear my name is healer Samantha Burns and as soon as I talk to Amelia we'll see about changing you back, though I must say it's a magnificent transformation. While we wait would you like something to eat? I think I have some chocolate around here somewhere" Harry screeched out a response (thunder and all) but ended up nodding to let her understand after all Harry never got chocolate.

When Amelia arrived in the infirmary she found Kingsley leaning back against the wall whilst healer Burns tried to feed Harry lumps of chocolate broken off of a big slab and using plastic tweezers to get it through the cage bars, there were splotches of melted chocolate all around the floor of the cage.

Amelia motioned to Kingsley to leave the room before moving to the healer's side, after double checking they were alone she let out a cough to get her attention "Healer Burns" said healer's attention moved towards Amelia.

Amelia cast several charms around the room to ensure privacy even from Harry "You no doubt have realized that this is an unusual case as there have never been reports of people changing into magical animals before and there is no doubt that whatever he has changed into is magical. Now this in itself would cause quite a fuss if it got out so in the interest of his well-being I will remind you of your healers oath…"

There almost a physical weight to those words on healer Burns as she nodded her realisation of the seriousness of the situation "That being said there is a reason I wanted you to wait for me before changing him back; I wanted to make sure you were alone as I believe this child is in fact Harry Potter!"

Surprise was clear on the healers face but she recovered quickly as she had been in this job a long time and had seen many an unusual situation. After healer Burns had regained her composure though she started to fill in Amelia on her thoughts about how to reverse Harry's transformation.

"I believe the Homorphus Charm will change him back like a normal animagus but I don't know how it will affect his lightning abilities as people often carry traits across from their animal form and the lightning seems to be a strong trait. As a precaution I'd recommend enlarging the cage so he'll fit in either form" the healer told Amelia as they both studied Harry.

Amelia gave her consent and cancelled the privacy spell that was affecting Harry whilst healer Burns went to kneel in front of him again "Harry dear we are going to enlarge the cage and try to change you back, you don't need to do anything but it will be painful so please bear with it"

Harry again bowed his head in an unmistakable nod and the healer used her wand to levitate the cage off the gurney and onto the floor before taking a step back and slowly enlarging the cage pausing every now and then to transfigure more bars to fill in the growing holes.

Then with a jab of her wand through one of the holes at Harry there was a second of suspense before Harry let out another cry this time the intent could be felt by both spectators causing them to shiver as it felt as though there was a cold breeze going down their backs due to the anguished cry.

Slowly the majestic bird changed back into a small underweight nearly five year old boy wearing pyjamas several sizes too big with a holes in their knees, the only likeness between the two beings was the emerald green eyes and the electricity being emitted from them.

"Now all we need to do is work out how to get him to stop throwing lightning everywhere" the stern red-headed auror commented walking round the cage making sure Harry had been completely changed back and he had, the only things left behind from his transformation was a couple of feathers on the floor of the cage both of which were sending out small sparks.

"So Harry, how are you feeling?" the healer asked whilst her colleague walked around the cage.

"It feels weird, I hurt everywhere and I'm cold" there was tears at the corners of Harry's eyes which of course brought the maternal instinct to the forefront of the women as healer Burns tried to comfort him knowing that it was normal to feel slight muscle pains after being forcefully transfigured.

The healer cast a small warming charm around the nearly five year old before trying to tackle their main problem "Harry honey, can you try to stop the lightning?"

There was a puzzled look on his young face it was almost a pout "How?"

Healer Burns almost smiled at the cute look on Harry's face before exchanging different theories with Amelia on how to stop the electricity, in the end they too had no idea but decided (hoped) it would probably work similar to how their magic worked all they needed was a focus.

It was Amelia that came up with the idea "Harry do you see those two feathers on the floor?" Harry looked all around the floor of his cage before giving a nod "Okay I want you to pick one of them up and try pushing the lightning into it."

Picking up the bigger of the two feathers Harry tried to imagine pushing the electricity into it and to their great relief almost all of it seemed to go straight into the feather which glowed blue and increased the number of sparks it gave off.

Both the women clapped, they knew it would take a while to get control of the electricity but it was better to encourage than to tear down his achievement.

Amelia left to one side to converse with healer Burns whilst Harry continued practising with the feather, once they finished both approached the cage again. It was Amelia that spoke and his attention instantly went from the feather, the electricity again going everywhere "Harry I'm going to leave you with healer Burns for a couple of hours whilst I get a few things sorted out, I know its late and your probably tired but it's important that you learn to control this lightning quickly so I want you to listen to what healer Burns tells you and try your best. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Amelia had put this off as long as she could but knew if she didn't make a report on the incident soon then someone would come to find out why. The timing was actually quite lucky as her boss was soon to be retired in the next couple of months and then she would be running the department, due to this she thought it wouldn't be too difficult to get him to sign off on a couple of papers as they gotten to know each other quite well whilst he'd been training her to take over.

She also knew that this case could not become public for Harry's safety, not to mention Dumbledore would probably get involved and Harry might end up back where he started; no it was better if nobody knew about this until it was too late or later than that if she could swing it.

After filling out a report on the night's events truthfully, just omitting a few truths like names and magical birds she made her way to her boss's office and knocked on the door.

Walter had been a dedicated member of the ministry for nearly fifty years and was well past due for retirement and it was only his loving wife that kept him in the office so late, he loved her to bits but she didn't half get on his nerves.

Instead of leaving the report on his desk like usual Amelia talked him through the nights events as stated in the report elaborating that the abused boy was currently in the medical wing getting a check-up and she needed his authorisation to hurry things along.

Walter knew his replacement well after all he was the one who chose her even though the wizarding world was still mostly male dominated she was he thought the best option and this case to him showed that he had chosen right as it proved her dedication to do what's right...

"Well I'd love to help you Ms Bones but I'm afraid even I can't take parental powers away from someone without a court ruling... but I do know someone who can, I'll sign off the paperwork but I'm afraid we'll have to convince our new minister to sign it off as well, not that I think it'll be too hard to do" he let out a small cough to clear his throat at the end.

"I do believe Mr Fudge is still in his office at the moment, hmm let me just get my coat and we'll both go and make him sign it off eh" as he said that he slowly used the arms of his chair to push himself to his feet and went to get his old fashioned overcoat.

Amelia was almost to the point of pulling out her hair with the slow pace her boss had set as they made their way towards the new minister's office but they eventually made it there and she was happy to see he hadn't gone home yet.

"Ah Mr Pover, Ms Bones what can I do for you" the slightly portly minister asked, this time it was Walter who explained giving out even less details than Amelia had but focussing on how it would affect the ministers career if he didn't sign off the paper work straight away if it got out he'd allowed the child's abuse to continue.

They were lucky that Fudge had only become minister because of some very powerful backers who wanted a pliable minister, well lucky in this case but it would become a real bane for Amelia in the future.

When Fudge's head of law enforcement and next head of law enforcement both come up to him a couple of days into the job saying that you need to sign something, well Fudge wasn't minister for nothing he put his name to the document straight away and with all the praise he was receiving he knew he'd done well.

As the two aurors slowly made their way out of Fudge's office showing nothing but respect Walter again cleared his throat "Well Ms Bones, I'll bid you good night here as I need to be getting home before my wife sends out a search party" he gave out a bark of laughter as they separated.

Amelia now no longer having to keep pace quickly made her way back to the auror's infirmary to find Harry still inside the cage; now he had his eyes closed whilst healer Burns tried to distract him, the feather which had previously been in his hands was now resting gently against his chest hanging from a chain around his neck.

The feather gave off a faint luminous blue light but apart from that there were no signs of electricity coming off of Harry, though there were still sparks coming from the other feather on the floor of the cage.

"So how's he doing?" Amelia asked healer Burns who was taking notes whilst trying to distract Harry.

"Surprisingly well, I mean it took a while for him to get it under control but then fine tuning it seemed to be easy for him, we also came into something else unexpected; it seems as though he can change into his bird form whenever he wants though he still has a bit of trouble changing back again but I'm sure with time he'll get it" Harry was now looking between the two women as they talked about him.

There were thoughts of registering Harry's animagus form after all she did work in the wizarding police department but quickly shook that thought off "Do you think it's safe to let him out of the cage?"

A quick nod from the healer and Amelia had banished the cage, healer Burns conjured up some plastic tongs and a plastic container before moving over to where Harry was and picking up the remaining feather from the floor whilst Amelia guided Harry into sitting on one of the gurneys.

The auror took the seat next to it and looked over her temporary charge "Harry, if it's okay with you I will be taking you home with me tonight, healer Burns will stopping the night as well just in case anything happens" she gave a quick look to the healer as confirmation.

"Unfortunately I am not equipped to look after a child permanently as I live alone and need to go to work every day, but I do know a few lovely people who would love to take care of you and I will visit as often as I can" there was an almost betrayed look in his eyes but he nodded his understanding.

"Cheer up Harry, you didn't think I'd leave you with anyone like your Aunt and Uncle did you? I guarantee that you'll love your new home and I'll be there every step of the way to help you in your new world" Amelia held out her arms and although somewhat reluctant Harry moved into her embrace falling asleep almost instantly (not noticing the slight static shock he gave her).

* * *

><p>In memory of Walter Pover, to me a truly great man<p>

It's difficult to guess how a five year old speaks but I tried...

As Arthur Weasley showed the wizarding world does not know what electricity is which is why they refer to it as lightning.

This is my second attempt at fan fiction and this story already has almost as many reviews as my other one, more people have it on their favourites and alerts... I don't know whether to be happy or sad about this as my first story was ten times the size at the time.

Feel free to use anything from any of my stories just let me know so I can read.

Please Review


	3. Chapter 3: You're A Wizard Harry

Thank you for your reviews; I hope not to disappoint

* * *

><p><strong>You're a Wizard Harry<strong>

Harry woke up in the softest bed he could remember…of course it was the first proper bed he could remember but it was soft none the less, the room he was in was large in fact it was probably the same size as the whole of the Dursley's upstairs; he really hoped he didn't have to clean this house.

At first he was confused as to where he was but then a soft blue glowing feather on his chest brought back the memories of Dudley's birthday yesterday and all the amazing things that had happened since.

He looked around the room wandering if he should get up and make breakfast or wait here until someone came to get him; in the end he decided it would be better not to go snooping around Amelia's house, he wished he had one of Dudley's books to read to keep him occupied (they were the only thing Dudley wouldn't notice missing).

Amelia night had been long even after she had tuned in for the night her thoughts of who would be best to place Harry with; at first her thoughts went to her last remaining family Luis her younger brother who had a young daughter about half a year older than Harry but then she thought about security.

Her brother lived in one of the few wizarding only villages in the UK, they lived in Dragons Wren a small village hidden from muggles one the west coast of Wales.

The Weasleys although a nice enough family was instantly rejected from her mind; they had enough children of their own and Harry would most likely be forgotten in all the hubbub not to mention the financial difficulty the Weasleys were already in as well as the fact that they were close to Dumbledore.

In the end there was one family that stood out in her mind and she hoped they would be agreeable with taking care of another child.

It was her house-elf that made her finally get out of bed in the end when he appeared in her room to let her know both her guests were awake; she got out of bed and dressed cleaning herself quickly with her wand off her side table before putting the wand into her robe pocket.

Making her way to the breakfast room where she found healer Burns already there sipping on a cup of tea "Good morning Samantha, have you seen Harry this morning?" she greeted the healer.

"No Ma'am, I've not seen him since his last check up a couple of hours ago" healer Burns sleepily replied, she had been checking on Harry every few hours throughout the night to make sure his condition hadn't changed and to reapply monitoring charms.

"He must still be in bed; I'll go check on him, call if you need anything" Amelia said making her way to the room they had placed Harry in.

She knocked on the room's door and waited for a response; after about ten seconds without one she cracked open the door and peered inside to see Harry just still lying where they'd left him tucked under the sheets.

She made her way over to the bed and sat on the edge leaning over to look at Harry in the eyes "Good morning Harry, do you want to go get something to eat?"

Harry who had almost sunk under the covers when he heard the knock on the door nodded his head at the stern woman's smile and started to make his way out from under the heavy covers taking note for the first time that he was wearing new pyjamas.

Amelia held her hand out for the young boy to take a smile always on her face; he reached out slowly to take her offered hand an unsure smile on his face. As the fingers of his small hand wrapped around her finger tips she led him back to the breakfast room.

Sitting him on the chair next to healer Burns before making her way round the table to sit on the other side; when it became apparent that Harry was still a bit short to reach the table healer Burns much to the enjoyment of Harry discretely cast a charm on the chair which made the legs extend until Harry was at almost as high as her head.

It was the first time they'd seen a true smile on his face and to the healer it was worth the bad night's sleep just for that one smile, there was a series of popping noises as plates of food appeared magically on the table much to Harry's surprise even as his chair was adjusted once again so the table was just above his waist.

The two women started to fill their plates with food whilst Harry watched on until Amelia looked over at him "Harry, feel free to eat as much as you like" she picked up a plate of toast near her and offered him the plate.

Under the watchful eyes of his breakfast companions he slowly filled his plate with toast, happy again everyone went back to eating. After the two women had finished eating they noticed Harry had only eaten a slice and a half of toast; healer Burns gave a pointed look at Amelia who nodded in understanding.

"Harry" his attention went to the auror the rest of his food forgotten "I need to go out for a while, do you remember where your room is?" he nodded "There has been some clothes set out for you on the chair in there if you're done eating why don' you go get changed..."

Harry slid off his chair and made his way out the room, Amelia and Samantha turned to each other, the healer spoke first "It appears that Harry isn't used to eating a lot, he'll need to eat slowly increasing proportions until he can eat normally; if he eats too much his body will reject and I'm sure you can imagine what will happen."

Amelia agreed "Yes, I'm just going to go see a couple of old friends to see if they would look after Harry I'll let them know everything they'll need to. Keep an eye on Harry until I get back, if your both up to it you can try and train Harry's new abilities some more...but please do it outside" she moved out the room into the entrance hall and over to a grand fireplace where she took a pinch of powder out of a pot on the mantel piece and threw it into the blazing fire.

The fire went from orange to green as soon as the powder hit, stepping into the fire without hesitation Amelia called out "Axminster Manor" and in a whoosh she disappeared from the fireplace.

Meanwhile healer Burns had taken the aurors advice and after finding Harry, dressed in the new clothes that the house-elf had picked up from Diagon Alley for him, took him outside to practice controlling his new abilities.

They started off with the healer conjuring targets and then throwing them with her wand for Harry to hit with his lightning, it took a bit of convincing to get him to use it but after the first few times he started to really enjoy himself.

After a bit of target practice healer Burns wanted to see how much power Harry could put into his lightning so she conjured one more target and asked him to put all his energy into the strike. After a second of concentrating the feather still on his chest again started giving of sparks; Harry threw both his hands forwards towards the targets electricity travelling down his arms into the palms of his hands.

As the blast of plasma exploded from his hands both Harry and healer Burns had to look away due to the flash, the sonic boom made them both stumble for a couple of seconds; they looked back towards the target to find it still intact but there was a scar in the earth a couple of feet in front of it still glowing a little from the heat letting off hissing sounds.

The healer walked over to the hole, Harry followed a few steps behind a bit upset that about missing. The healer after looking at the damage done in awe took a second to regain her composure before turning to Harry with a grin plastered on her face "Perhaps you need a bit more target practice before we move onto power, okay let's try your transformation for until Amelia returns, any questions?"

Harry shook his head but then he scratched the back of his head a hesitant smile on his face "um how do you make objects and change them with that stick?" he was looking down as he asked.

Looking at her wand Samantha thought about the question carefully; she waved it to conjure up bench for the two of them sit and motioned next to her as she sat. Crawling up next to her Harry kept his eyes on the floor.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders "I'm sorry Harry I should have told you about it yesterday, this is called a wand" she showed him hers "a witch or wizard use it as a focus to control magic and you Harry will get your own when you turn eleven; yes Harry you're a wizard."

After what he'd been doing for most of the morning and what had happened yesterday Harry had little trouble believing in magic even though his aunt and uncle had both been adamant that it didn't exist, though it might be just that he was young and most children hope that magic is real (though most never lose that hope they just try to convince themselves it's impossible).

Now that magic had been made real to Harry it wasn't too much of a leap for him to realize that his aunt and uncle already knew about it and that was the reason they didn't like him, well that's what he wanted to believe, and if they knew he was magical then he probably got it from his parents.

"Do you know my parents?" the young boy asked tears starting to appear at the edge of his eyes.

Samantha was surprised at the unexpected question, she like every-one in the wizarding world knew of the Potters "I didn't know them personally but I had heard stories of them, they were considered heroes Harry. When you were born there was a war against the most evil of men going on" he was hanging onto her every word.

"Your parents opposed this evil man, when you were born they went into hiding but he found them...they tried to protect you but in the end they couldn't stand up to You-Know-Who. After your parents he turned his wand on you but you somehow survived and You-Know-Who was defeated. Nobody knows for sure but it is believed that you somehow beat the dark lord; you are famous in the wizarding world..." she trailed off as she finished

Amelia appeared in another entrance hall with only one door into the main house, she knew better than to leave the hall and go looking for the residents as the room was heavily warded for their protection, she also knew that the master of the house had already been informed that he had visitors.

She had to wait but a minute before the door into the house opened a tall slim man in his early thirties entered "Amelia, to what do I owe this unexpected visit?" he greeted her, his voice refined.

"I need to speak to both Evelyn and yourself John, I need your help" the man studied her for a second before inviting her into his home proper.

They ended up in a small study (relatively speaking) where a beautiful woman sat reading a story to two young girls obviously her children as they had inherited their mothers looks the younger of which had fallen asleep in her mother's lap.

She looked up with a happy smile on her face that faded a little when Amelia followed John through the door "Dear, Amelia wishes to have a word with us perhaps Daphne can entertain Astoria in her bedroom...?"

Daphne the older of the two children got up to take her sister without a word of complaint used to her father bringing guests around for meetings.

The three adults sat in armchairs spaced comfortably around a fireplace a table with a pile of books on it between them.

"So Amelia, please tell us what brings you over?" John started off as Evelyn served them tea which had been delivered by the unseen house-elf, giving a nod of thanks for the tea "I had an unusual case yesterday, there was a case of accidental magic... when we went to investigate we found a young boy who was being abused by his guardians. Of course he has been removed from the home but now we need to find another family to look after him, I was hoping you would consider it?"

The couple looked at each other whilst they both thought; John had known Amelia distantly for years and knew that aurors wouldn't have been sent out on a normal case of accidental magic and there was also the fact that Amelia wanted them to take the child even though they weren't that close...

The look in his wife's eyes said she trusted his judgement though most of the responsibility would go to her; she used to be a healer before Daphne was born where she became a full time mother so she would be the one looking after the child most of the time not to mention looking after Astoria.

There was one last thing about this that made up John's decision in the end and that was the fact that it was only yesterday that Amelia was called out on the case, he worked in the Wizengamot as a barrister so he knew it usually took months to re-home abused children so there must be a reason this had been rushed through and the fact that Amelia had been vague...

"Alright we'll take care of him; I'm sure there's a story to this...?" and there was but it was a lot more than the couple had expected...

It was a great relief for Amelia that they'd accepted, under the protection of the Greengrass family Harry would be safe and with Evelyn he will receive the care he needs not to mention company from children his own age.

After she'd finished informing them about everything she knew about Harry, animagus form included (after all they might notice) she finished off the tea she'd been served waiting for their reaction to finding out Harry Potter was the abused child.

"It was Dumbledore that placed Harry with his family wasn't it?" Evelyn asked the auror who nodded "He gave the impression that he had placed him in a loving home, that he couldn't reveal where for Harry's protection, unfortunately because of this we couldn't check up on him...I hope to all that is good in the world that Dumbledore did not intend for Harry to live in an abusive household, but either way I will look closer into everything he does from now on, I still have trouble believing he can make mistakes let alone do something like this on purpose."

"Quite, do you have the forms that need to be filled out to make this official?" John asked his face a blank mask using his skills in Occlumency to hide all emotions, thinking ahead as to how this could benefit his family the most.

Withdrawing the forms on the desk already signed by Minister Fudge she laid them out on the table between them for John to check it over.

"Normally it would be a member of the Underage Magic team that came to check and see if he is doing well but due to the nature of the case it would be better for a minimum number of people who know he is here so either myself or healer Burns will be checking to see if there are any problems once a week for the first two months then it will be once a month for the rest of the year, after that we will be obligated to visit once a year. Of course if you have any troubles you can of course come straight to me" Amelia informed them.

Evelyn was getting excited; she loved children and was thinking about asking her husband if they could try for a third. There were a couple of things she wanted to know and since Amelia offered…

"So when will you bring him over? And what has been done to his previous 'guardians'?" there was loathing in her voice at the last word; she couldn't imagine anyone mistreating an innocent child.

"Unfortunately there isn't much I can do to the Dursleys, if I arrest them then it will no-doubt become public knowledge and I can't allow that to happen but I do know a few well connected people in the muggle world that can make their lives a bit more uncomfortable. As to when I can drop him off if it's okay with you this afternoon would be convenient."

The three continued to discuss any concerns they had about Harry for the rest of the morning; it was mostly about his medical check-up the healer performed whilst he slept the previous night, the financial support they would receive from the government (even if they didn't need it) and the fact that he had no possessions.

Amelia was weary when she finally returned to her home; it didn't take her long to find Harry as he was making enough noise to be mistaken as a storm.

To her surprise she came across Harry in his bird form leaning to fly, the lightning was a lot more controlled than the first time she'd seen him like this; it was still there sparking around his body but it wasn't striking off in random directions as he flapped about erratically a few feet off the ground.

His avian eyes quickly fixed onto her and with a cry he changed back into a young boy again a happy smile on his face even if he did look more tired than Amelia felt and with the scars in her lawn she could guess why.

Healer Burns made her way out from behind a metal cage she'd made in front of herself and quickly made her way over to the aurors side a stack of paper in her hand which drew Amelia's attention dreading more paperwork

"Alright Harry why don't you continue your target practice?" with that said she started to transfigure the paper into paper aeroplanes (same as what's used to send messages in the ministry) and sent flying them off in random patterns around Harry who started to try and blast them out the air with his lightning.

With the young boys attention elsewhere it left the two adults with enough space to talk privately.

"Well did they accept?" the healer started off the questioning, Amelia gave a small smile and a sharp nod confirming their acceptance of Harry "I hope you don't mind but I've told them that it will be either you or I who checks up on Harry?" her eyebrow rose in question

"Of course not, the little guys sort of grown on me. So when's he going?"

Amelia let out a sigh "I'll take him after we've all had something to eat…"

The lunch was not a pleasant one, it seemed as though Harry had been having the best day of his life so far (and it was only half way through) as he'd not had to do any chores and telling him that he was going to be placed somewhere else brought tears all round even to Amelia. There was an almost depressed aura as they sat eating lunch; Harry nibbling here and there.

Whilst at the Greengrass residence the atmosphere was more on the side of anxious as the two Greengrass children had been told they were going to get a new brother.

Whilst they talked over the dinner table John stated his plan for their new resident "Daphne I've decided to re-decorate most of the Bedrooms in the estate as such we'll be a little cramped on space so I'm afraid you'll have to share with your new 'Brother' ouch" he ended up with a sore leg and an evil glare from his beautiful wife whilst his youngest daughter laughed at him, Daphne who tried to act like her father in public and show no emotion couldn't quite hide the annoyance on her face.

"Ignore your fathers rambling dear; he's just so excited to meet the new member of our family, I think a few months sleeping on the couch will calm him down" The older Greengrass lady said with a pleasant smile on her face that sent shivers down her husband's spine.

They had yet to tell the two girls who was coming to live with them; they thought it would be a good surprise especially for Astoria who was a fan of Harry Potter series of children's books.

After lunch Evelyn went back to reading her daughters the story they were reading when Amelia turned up whilst John went to check that everything was prepared for Harry's arrival, his room (unfortunately not Daphne's) had been prepared by the house elves and the potions Harry would need were retrieved from St Mungo's outpatients distribution desk using the prescription Amelia brought with her.

Finally the wards warned him (via house-elf) that there were two adults and one minor in the entrance hall, he quickly made his way to gather up his family to greet their newest member.

As soon as he opened the door to the study Evelyn closed the book she was reading; as she stood up Astoria on her hip she was almost bouncing from foot to foot. Evelyn held her free hand out for Daphne to grab as she brushed past her husband leaving him to follow her in her wake.

By the time he'd caught up to the rest of his family they were bursting through the doors into the Floo Room, he moved quickly to their side thankful that the study was close to the entrance so he wasn't out of breath.

It wasn't long after they'd emerged from the floo (Harry who travelled with Samantha was starting to think wizards were insane…traveling via fire, that's just asking for trouble) that they were greeted by the whole Greengrass family.

Harry who'd notice there was only one door into the house proper had done the smart thing and hidden behind Amelia's robes so he'd be out of view, healer Burns was wearing muggle clothing.

Unfortunately for Harry Amelia stepped aside using a hand to keep him from moving behind her again "Evelyn, John, allow me to introduce to you to Harry Potter" There was a squeak from Evelyn's hip as Astoria started wriggling until her mother put her down, it was less than a second before she was flying through the air into Harry.

Harry at first was scared; he relaxed a couple of seconds after nothing else had happened (and luckily nobody had been shocked literally) and looked at the girl about year younger than him who seemed to be trying to bury herself into his chest.

John was somewhat worried about what Harry's reaction would be but after the boy had relaxed he let a smile grace his face; he moved forward and crouched down next to the boy "Nice to meet you Harry, my name is John and the lovely lady with the gorgeous girl is my wife Evelyn and daughter Daphne the demon on top of you is my other daughter Astoria."

Harry had no idea what to do in this situation so he answered like he would one of his Uncle's guests "Nice to meet you, Sir."

Even Harry who had never seen it before recognised the pity in John's eyes "I give you my word Harry nothing will intentionally cause you harm whilst you are within these walls, and Amelia or Ms Burns will be checking to make sure" the patriarch of the family said a kind smile on his usually stoic face.

Those words seemed to lift a weight off of Harry's chest as he wrapped his arms around Astoria for comfort much to her pleasure.

* * *

><p>I never even thought about placing Harry at the Weasley's, it was mentioned that Amelia didn't want Dumbledore to know. The only two families I considered were the Bones (Susan's Family) and the Greengrass's<p>

I made a mistake in the first chapter but it seems nobody noticed...I put that Harry read ahead in his studies but here in the UK education doesn't start until your five, I added in a bit more in this chapter to correct that. I'll try not to rush things but I hope to get Harry into Hogwarts in the next chapter or two.

I've decided the pairings will be either Daphne or Susan, possibly both I'll put up a poll.


	4. Chapter 4: Dreams

Thanks to all those who reviewed and to those who added my story to their favourites or alerts list, it was great receiving about a hundred emails. I will not spoil which house Harry will be in but I have already decided.

* * *

><p><strong>Dreams<strong>

It took a bit of convincing to make Astoria get off of Harry's chest, it was a compromise in the end as she held onto his hand and tried to merge with his side as he was shown around his new home; the older women were enjoying his discomfort greatly if their giggling was anything to go off.

After exploring the whole house; he hoped they didn't expect him to remember where everything was as this house was about the same size as Ms Bone's (he wasn't comfortable calling her Amelia), the group made their way back to the lounge where there were two three seater sofas and a couple of armchairs in between.

John and Amelia took the armchairs whilst Daphne and healer burns sat on one of the sofas, Harry made his way towards the last sofa Astoria still attached to his side when his feet left the ground, he let out a startled grunt as Evelyn picked both him and Astoria up before she sat herself down bringing Astoria and Harry with her, amazingly Astoria managed to keep hold of him.

The feather on his chest had started glowing when he was startled but soon settled down as he relaxed a little when Evelyn started running her fingers gently through his hair whilst she rubbed Astoria's back, it wasn't long before Astoria fell asleep and Harry wasn't far behind her thanks to all the activities he'd done that morning as well as his young age.

If it wasn't for the children sleeping on her lap Evelyn would have been jumping for joy the smile on her face lighting up the room.

Harry was most grateful that Amelia and Samantha were still there when he woke up a couple of hours later still in Evelyn's lap; seeing his opportunity he slid off her lap and across to the other side of the settee Astoria was fortunately for him still asleep.

The adults had stopped talking when Harry had awoken and moved across the sofa, it upset Evelyn a bit but she understood and was sure with time he would lose all his mistrust towards them. Daphne who had grown bored had wandered off a long time ago whilst Harry slept.

As tea time approached much to his annoyance Astoria was shaken awake by her mother and asked to go get her sister; as she nodded she caught sight of Harry in the corner of her eye, she stood up on the sofa by using her hands to push herself into an upright position before quickly making her way to Harry's side and holding her hands out.

It was at this point Harry found out he couldn't say no to his new little sister as his hand betrayed him and took hers whereat in he was dragged out of the room by the hyperactive girl; for some reason he was sure he could hear giggling again.

Daphne was lying down on wool rug in front of the fire in the study when her little sister barged in dragging Harry along behind her "It's tea time!" Astoria shouted a happy grin on her face.

At first it looked as though Daphne was ignoring her sister but after a few seconds she placed the book mark into the page and walked silently out of the room "I don't think she likes me…?" Harry commented quietly to his devoted follower who whispered back "I think she does she's just um" Astoria brought her hand to her mouth as she thought what her mother had told her "she's into-hurt" her hands went to her hips with accomplishment and Harry nodded not wanting to show he didn't understand (not knowing about her mispronunciation).

Tea at the Greengrass residents was a lot more formal than the two meals he had eaten at Amelia's house; he was seated between the two Greengrass girls along one side of the table whilst Amelia and Samantha sat opposite them with Evelyn and John sitting at each end. Astoria kept asking him questions about some of the adventures he'd had not that he understood most of what she said (she didn't believe he couldn't remember saving a unicorn).

He picked slowly at his meal until he couldn't eat anymore; the food disappeared after everyone had finished only to be replaced by a dessert of strawberries and ice cream. Harry never noticed the worried looks he received from the adults.

As everyone helped themselves to dessert a goblet full of bubbling deep red liquid appeared next to his place mat "Harry that is a blood supplement potion it will make you feel better after a while so please drink" John motioned to the potion.

Harry picked up the goblet inspecting its contents with his eyes followed by his nose before finally taking a sip; his face screwed up in disgust "Ha I know most potions don't taste very good but they are effective." John gave a sheepish smile at the glare he received from Harry.

With dessert eaten and all the plates magically disappearing Amelia and Samantha prepared to leave, Amelia knelt in front of Harry "I know this will be tough but bear with it and after a while I'm sure you'll fit in fine; if you need anything or have any troubles you can contact me via owl, ask Evelyn and she'll show you."

It felt as if there was a lump in his throat at the thought of Amelia (the person who saved him from the Dursley's as he know thought of her) leaving him, he quickly threw his arms around her and managed to choke out his words "Thank you, Thank you for everything" he stood back wiping his face with the sleeve of his shirt.

Of course healer Burns received a hug as well before they were both whisked away out of the fireplace, now alone with his foster family an awkward silence descended upon the household.

Evelyn broke up the atmosphere "Well I think we have time for a story before you need to clean up for bed" with another squeal Harry was dragged after his foster mother by his excited foster sister; Daphne followed at a sedate pace after them.

After the story (The tales of Beedle the Bard) he was made to take his first bath and it was an experience he wasn't looking forward to repeating. The bath was more like a swimming pool and as he started to remove his clothes much to his embarrassment he was joined by Evelyn as she wanted to make sure he cleaned himself properly.

To hide his embarrassment he quickly jumped into the bath not knowing that as soon as the feather around his neck hit the water it shorted out and dispersed all of the stored electricity. Luckily Harry was unaffected by the electricity and Evelyn was not in the bath unluckily Harry couldn't swim and he had jumped into the deepest section of the pool.

It was her instinct (and the sparks) that stopped Evelyn from jumping in after him but using her wand she quickly cast a bubble head charm on Harry followed by a calming charm. After Harry had settled on the bottom and realized he wasn't drowning he saw Evelyn motioning to the other end of the bath. He made a note to not wear his focus into the bath (which meant he would need to focus more) whereas Evelyn added swimming onto things he'd need to learn.

That night after Evelyn had tucked him into bed he noticed just how big the room was and how his life had changed in such a short time, before he knew what was happening tears were already running down his face and he was quietly sniffling to himself.

About an hour after Daphne's mother had tucked her into bed she had the urge to go to the toilet so she snuck out of her room towards the bathroom. On the way back she could hear noises coming from Harry's room; being curios as she was she peered into the room but due to the only light coming from the hallway she couldn't see much.

Creeping into the room she made her way to the source of the noise, it was Harry who was curled up under the covers shaking.

Daphne at first wasn't sure what to do but then her thoughts turned to what her mother did when she or Astoria were upset. Going round to the other side of the bed she climbed up under and under the covers until she was just behind Harry who had frozen when he felt the mattress move.

Reaching over Daphne wrapped her arms around Harry and pulled his chest into her own and for the first time Harry heard her speak "Don't worry Harry it'll be all right" her voice more than her words soothed him as they fell asleep where they lay.

Amelia after saying her own goodbyes to healer Burns floo'd to her office in the ministry before making her way to the department of magical transport offering short greetings to those she knew.

The department of magical transport was split into several sub-sections, she moved quickly to the offices that controlled the floo network where a woman similar age to Evelyn sat going through paperwork a map of Great Britain on the wall.

Giving a quick knock on the door Amelia entered "Good evening Mrs Edgecombe, I find myself with a need to use your unique map" as everyone in the ministry knew that Amelia was soon to be head of the aurors Edgecombe didn't give her much protest and left to get herself a cup of tea whilst Amelia worked.

Quickly focusing the map on Surrey two red dots appeared one of which was on Privet Drive, tapping her want on that dot the floo address and who it was registered to appeared from the red dot.

Knowing what she needed to do Amelia cleared the map back to how it was before making her way to meet Arabella Figg to make sure she didn't tell Dumbledore that Harry was no longer on Privet Drive. As much as it was against her morals she had decided to do this by convincing Arabella that Harry was one of the other children on the street and as long as Dumbledore never came himself it was unlikely that he'd find out.

The new Greengrass family soon adjusted into a routine; normally after breakfast John would floo out to work whilst Evelyn taught all three of the children, these lessons included reading and writing, maths, etiquette and swimming. They also played several games together to break up the monotony.

The three women of the household quickly grew attached to Harry even Daphne as she now spent most nights crawling into Harry's bed for comfort after everyone had gone to bed; both parents knew but Evelyn thought it would be good for Harry and John…well he knew they were young enough that nothing could happen not to mention the future possible benefits.

Like they said they would Amelia and Samantha visited once a week usually on the weekend where they went out to the local park or zoo if the weather permitted.

It was just over five weeks before something different happened, waking up in Daphne's arms like he normally does he just lay there watching her sleep, her face still had some puppy fat but it looked almost exactly like her mother's, her blond hair pillowing out behind her.

Eventually the ice blue eyes opened and after a bit of stretching she was fully awake, they just looked at each other for a second before she made her way out to her own room.

A quick wash later, Harry got dressed and made his way to where the family always ate breakfast.

"Harry can I have a word with you please?" he was stopped by John just outside the breakfast room turning he followed the older man without protest even though he didn't really know him well he knew the rest of the family and was starting to trust them.

Motioning to a seat in front of him as John sat down he asked "Harry, is it okay if I ask a personal question?" the raven haired you looked down unsure but they did let him into their lives so he gave his accent.

"What do you dream about Harry?" John knew that most adults wouldn't answer this question but a child on the other hand…

Harry was nervous about his answer but he went ahead anyway "I used to dream about my parents coming to rescue me. Now I dream about them being with me and happy." John stood from his seat before kneeling before Harry a sad smile on his face "It is a good dream to have; I have a present for you Harry" John grabbed a package from the desk beside him.

"It is impossible to bring back those who have left us, all we can do is keep them in our thoughts and I hope this will help you with your parents" John waited patiently for Harry to open the parcel.

Neatly opening the parcel his heart beating rapidly as he'd never received a present before. A leather bound book fell onto his lap, the book was ornately decorated with a different coloured gem in each colour, and opening it to the first page he was greeted by a picture of a man and woman sitting on the floor just behind a small baby an adoring look in their eyes.

He quickly went through the book most of the pages at the beginning were either the older couple together or separately or the couple with the baby, most of the pictures moved which would have surprised him if he hadn't seen the moving portraits around the house. The pictures stopped about a third of the way through the book; on the last page of pictures there were two on the page one showing the whole Greengrass family out at the zoo with Harry and the other showing just Harry and Daphne sleeping together.

Harry was speechless he now knew what his parents looked like; there was no mistaking those green eyes on his mother the same as his.

Carefully closing the book and standing he threw his arms around John's neck exclaiming his thanks over and over not caring or knowing that tears ran down his face.

"This book is now yours to add to, fill it with your happy memories and in the future maybe you will have children of your own to show it to and keep the memory of your parents alive" John whispered in the child's ear "Now how bout we go to breakfast?" he took a look at Harry who had obviously been crying "or maybe we should make ourselves presentable or my wife will kill me" he gave out a nervous laugh at the end.

After Harry had recovered enough John guided him back to the breakfast room with his hand on Harry's back whilst the young animagus clutched his new book protectively to his chest.

It was Harry's first birthday with the Greengrass family and they wanted to make it one to remember so Evelyn had gotten up early to re-decorate the breakfast room with decorations covering the walls and the table covered in presents (mostly clothes).

Of course Amelia and Samantha were invited and John kept Harry busy whilst they put up finishing touches and people got into position, they were sure Harry was going to be surprised.

They were right as the three adults wands let of bangs and sparks of coloured lights whilst everyone shouted "Surprise" as the door opened but his reaction surprised them more as he disappeared in a flash and a bang, this was even more surprising as there were anti-apparition wards covering the whole house.

There was silence in the breakfast room before the adults broke out into panic the children forgotten as they started to discuss where they should start looking for the missing boy.

It was just as they were going to leave that they noticed Daphne and Astoria leading Harry back into the room; he looked to be fine except for his nervous expression.

"Harry! Are you all right?" "Harry! Where did you go?" came from several directions at the same time.

As Harry tried to shrink into himself Daphne answered with an even voice "He was in his room" and as the first time Harry had heard her talk it relaxed him a little though you could see he was still very tense.

The news brought up several thoughts to the different occupants of the room most of them wondered if he could do it again, the ability to travel through wards would have great tactical advantages whilst Evelyn was just happy that he apparated to his room meaning he most likely felt safe there.

After the somewhat active beginning of the day the rest of it calmed down somewhat; Harry opened his presents with the help of Astoria then they all ate cake and played games for the rest of the day, apparently chess was a lot more exciting in the wizarding world (if you could get your pieces to listen to you).

After his birthday (a day he was now looking forward to) everyone went back to their normal routine and as the year passed Harry's dreams started to change, at first his imagination's parents were replaced by his real parents then he like most boys his age that just found out about magic started to dream of being a superhero who beat villains with ease whilst his family (both Potters and Greengrass) watched on with pride.

It was these dreams that started Harry's thirst to learn magic at the age of five and three quarters, he had gained a lot of confidence since coming to live with his new family and it was this confidence that brought him the courage to ask John a question after he had been told no questions with his previous 'family'.

Finding him where he normally was when he was home Harry entered the parlour and made his way over to the chairs next to the bay window.

"Uncle John?" he spoke quietly a habit he had yet to break, John's attention shifted from the paperwork on his lap "I've been wandering if it would be okay for me to learn magic?"

John thought the question over; he knew Harry was learning to control his lightning with Evelyn whilst Daphne and Astoria visited their friends the Davies so it was obvious from his question that he wanted to learn to use a wand.

There were laws in place which were strictly enforced in the UK about teaching children under the age of eleven magic which were only slightly relaxed after they turned eleven.

That being said there were things that could be taught at home which would give someone a big advantage when they went to Hogwarts "Harry you cannot use a wand before you turn eleven but I will teach you a few things you can do without one before you go to Hogwarts and I'm sure Evelyn will help" it was not quite the answer Harry wanted but he was grateful none the less.

It was a couple of days later that John knocked on Harry's room's door early in the morning to start the training; Harry answered the door in his pyjamas which he'd received on his birthday, they were already too small for him.

"Good morning Harry, could you wake Daphne up for me and meet me in the breakfast room and I'll go over the different things I can teach you about magic?" no longer tired Harry rushed back into his room closing the door, whilst John took off towards the breakfast room he could hear Harry's door opening again and small footsteps heading toward Daphne's room.

It was just the three of them at the breakfast table this morning Evelyn and Astoria still in bed. After they had finished eating John leant back in his seat and looked to his daughter first "Daphne, Harry came to me a couple of days ago asking me to teach him magic, as you know it is illegal to teach young children magic but there are certain ways to avoid breaking this law; I asked you here to see if you wanted to learn alongside Harry?"

A small smile graced the young girls lips as she gave a short nod, she spent most her time in the study seeking new knowledge and was quite unhappy that she couldn't reach the shelves with the magical tomes on them.

John too let out a smile he was proud of his daughter "Good I was hoping you'd want to learn and as such I've gotten you a both a gift" he reached into his pocket and brought out two long thin boxes.

Upon opening the boxes they were both confused as there was a wand in each, John explained "These are just plain wooden sticks shaped like a wand, as you lean magic you find out that you have to move your wand in a certain way depending on the spell. A lot of these movements are repeated from spell to spell so with these 'practice wands' you can learn the movements the same way you learn to write" he demonstrated by casting a couple of spells exaggerating the wand movements.

"There are also many branches of magic that don't use a wand: Potions, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Occlumency & Legilimency as well as Divination to name a few. Potions is a must learn as that is one of the course subjects at Hogwarts but the rest of them are up to you?"

The two looked from each other Harry was relieved to see confusion in Daphne's face as well "What are they?" Harry asked.

John blinked once before remember how young the children really were "Ancient Runes is a study of an old scripture which is still in use today in some areas. Arithmancy is the study of numbers and like Divination is mostly used to predict the future, of course the approaches of the two subjects differ vastly as there is no guesswork in Arithmancy. Occlumency is the study of defending your mind from outside influences whereas Legilimency is the opposite, I cannot teach you Legilimency but I am a highly proficient Occlumens. Like I said you do not have to study any of these if you don't want to, I imagine most of your time will be looking up spells to practice the wand movements with, I will of course recommend certain books so that you don't learn everything you would at Hogwarts and you still have lots to learn in your normal classes, I believe you will soon be leaning to dance."

There was a giggle out in the hallway followed by the door bursting open, Astoria framed in the doorway as she looked around before bounding over to Harry and taking the other seat next to him.

A cup of tea appeared in front of John as he watched his youngest eat for a while before turning back to the other two "Well think it over and let me know at lunch time" Daphne got up and left the room, Harry tried to follow but Astoria grabbed his shirt as he started to stand.

Harry thought over what John had said about the different subjects the fake wand in his robe's pocket a constant reminder, in the end he had made his choice choosing what he believed would make him a better wizard.

After lunch Evelyn took Astoria out to play in the garden whilst John consulted the two starting with Harry "So Harry, what do you want to learn?" there was little hesitation in his voice as he answered "I want to learn Occlumency and spend the rest of the time learning spells."

Daphne's answer was similar if somewhat short "Occlumency and Ancient Runes."

John was quite happy with their choices but didn't let it show as he spoke to them both "Okay, I can teach you both Occlumency it is a useful skill to have. As for Ancient Runes Daphne I will speak to your mother later on today as she studied them whilst at Hogwarts. You will both learn potions with Evelyn as well and depending on when we have free time both of us will keep an eye on you when you practice wand movements. Harry you will continue with your animagus training whilst Daphne is learning Ancient Runes. Do either of you have any questions?" both shook their heads.

The next four years were busy as they started to learn how to cast spells without actually casting them; it started out slow as neither of the parents had a lot of time to supervise but they were given books to read, after the first year Astoria was allowed to join so they got more time practising wand movements.

Both of them managed to learn Occlumency after the first couple of years but they still practiced and improved whilst Astoria's mind was not geared for Occlumency she still tried to learn it.

As Daphne and later Astoria learnt Ancient Runes Harry was led outside to practice controlling his lightning, at first it was just against targets either moving or stationary before John brought home a pig…while this may have seemed cruel it was necessary as most of the time lightning kills when it hits someone. So several pigs later Harry managed to reduce the power of his shocks so it only causes temporary paralysis, they then moved onto different farm animals both magical and mundane until he could adjust the power needed by instinct.

To make sure Harry (and the girls) were not socially stunted they were quite often taken to the local muggle park or did various other muggle activities such as bowling and go-karting usually with Harry under a slight glamour, it was also a good way of teaching them about the muggle world.

Daphne and Harry did eventually stop sleeping together as they grew older especially as Daphne started to mature more.

By Harry's tenth birthday he could hardly remember there was a Dursley family and was now used to receiving presents on the anniversary of his birth; so it was no surprise to John when prior to the date Harry had asked if he could get a pet for his birthday.

John after making sure Harry agreed to take care of it quickly agreed but brought up a surprise of his own as it would be the last year Daphne and Harry would be at home he had booked a holiday for the family.

Of course the family couldn't go anywhere that Harry would be recognised easily (at least he would prefer not to face that storm yet); in the end John had booked a lodging in a small magical community in Greenland where the cold would mean most people were well wrapped up.

It was in Greenland that Harry wandered upon the local pet store, after all he had been promised, and for once he was the one dragging the two younger Greengrass girls as he entered the shop not that it took much to convince them.

The difference in temperature inside the store from the outside was easily noticeable as the store was kept warm by several charms, the store was packed full of cages all various shapes and sizes. The noise of the different animals took some getting used to but the three adjusted and moved to the nearest cage.

The first cage they came to contained a snake snoozing lazily on a heated rock, it turned and hissed menacingly at the three as their shadows fell over it. They quickly moved on examining different varieties of owls from Barn to Snowy who were all watching the magical rats do tricks.

Finally they came to the animals that Harry was really interested in, the cats and there were dozens upon dozens of them ranging from kittens a few months old to fully grown adults.

Harry went from cage to cage sticking his fingers between bars trying to stroke the kittens which seemed to hold his (and the two girls) attention whilst the store attendant kept a close eye on the three.

After spending an inordinate amount of time trying to stroke a small kitten he moved onto the last cage which held three more kittens; they were patterned like white tigers but were small enough to fit in the palms of their hands, they could tell the cats were very young as they weren't moving much their eyes still blind and to Harry he'd already found his perfect pet.

Although tough he managed to drag himself and the two girls, though that was harder than dragging them into the pet store, away from them to go and find Uncle John.

They found him back at the cabin just getting out of bed, near midday for some reason, and dragged him straight back to the pet store after he told Evelyn who was still in bed where they were going.

Telling Uncle John what he wanted when he got there was easy but getting the shop attendant to understand was not so easy, it involved a lot of motioning with their hands and for some reason the shop keeper was hesitant to sell them one of the kittens.

Harry ended up choosing the largest of the three a female with eyes that almost matched Daphne's own and he was tempted to name her after his closest friend but the glare he received from said girl quickly dissuaded him.

As for of the rest of their holiday Harry spent it looking after his new pet who seemed to never stop eating or growing. By the time the holiday ended Harry was starting to think his new pet wasn't a normal cat as it had grown to over twice its original size.

Back home the training continued only now Harry's pet that he'd decided to name Shiva had replaced Astoria in following the young boy everywhere although he still spent a lot of time with Astoria she no longer stalked him.

Shiva had continued to grow reaching knee height quickly; it had become more than apparent that she was not a normal cat, especial after she started freezing random objects around the house or a least he thought it was her even though he'd yet to see her do it.

Toward the end of November as Daphne's birthday approached she received an owl carrying her acceptance letter into Hogwarts and as congratulations ended up getting her own pet, after assurances from the shop assistant that it didn't have any unknown abilities, she received a spectacled owl she called Mercury; it had brown back and face except for what looked like white spectacle around its eyes whilst its chest was bordering on yellow.

At first Harry had to keep an eye on Shiva with Mercury around as she quite often sat there watching the owl fly back and forth her tail twitching behind her, luckily she was a very intelligent cat and quickly learnt not to eat owls or other birds as she saw Harry change back and forth.

Harry's animagus form too had grown exponentially and he was now bigger as a bird than he was as a human his plumage still a beautiful blue but it was tinged more with silver.

After what seemed like ages to Harry after Daphne received her Hogwarts letter Harry received his own as on the twenty fourth of July a familiar owl flew through the mail slot and dropped a letter addressed to Harry Potter, Harry's Room, Axminster Manor. The back of the letter was sealed with a wax seal stamped with a crest of four animals on the back.

The family after another day of celebrations made plans to visit Diagon Alley where Harry would most likely be recognised and their peaceful life changed forever.

* * *

><p>Into-hurt = Introvert<p>

It seems that most of my readers are male as of the 35 (at the time) votes 27 of them are for both Daphne and Susan to be Harry's partners, I'll leave the poll up for the next couple of chapters so feel free to vote.

I looked up each of the courses on Wiki and couldn't see anything about Ancient Runes having anything to do with warding or Arithmancy with spell creation (I say this because someone will point it out to me) and no real life animals were hurt in the writing of this chapter.

Teufel1987: Your right Hogsmeade is the only wizard village in the books but I find that highly unlikely in reality (and it fits my story better) so I changed it, as for the HP children's books being overused I somewhat agree and again I think it is quite likely there were children's books about him as it seemed like everybody in the magical world knew Harry.

Please Review


	5. Chapter 5: To Hogwarts

To answer the reviews: I know it's hypocritical of me with the way I'm butchering the plot but if you read the Harry Potter books Hedwig was gotten as a present by Hagrid because he's allergic to cats and toads are unpopular and since he doesn't know Hagrid... and I'm sure I put there will be major plot changes somewhere

Nobother: I did mean to add a note at the bottom of the last chapter and will amend if I remember when Astoria said into-hurt she meant introvert it's phonetically similar I think

* * *

><p><strong>To Hogwarts<strong>

There was an uncomfortable cold radiating from around Harry's feet as he woke up the next morning…in fact it was more than cold it was freezing, quickly jumping out of bed will a cry "Shiva" he yelled noticing the end of his bed frozen, Shiva who was sleeping on the pillow next to where he slept raised her head an innocent look on her face.

With a sigh Harry moved to get dressed stamping his feet a few times to get the feeling back into them; Daphne hearing the cry from outside the door moved to investigate.

Both pre-teens were surprised when she opened the door as Harry was in the middle of getting changed, quickly closing the door again with a blush on her face Daphne made her way toward the breakfast room without a word.

There was an unusual atmosphere at breakfast that morning as neither Harry nor Daphne would look at each other blushing every time they did, Astoria was curious as to what happened pestering them both to tell her.

"We'll be leaving just after breakfast so make sure you're all ready" John finally interrupted Astoria much to the relief of the older children as they quickly slipped away from the table.

A few minutes later all four of the Greengrass's and Harry were in front of the fire place in the entrance hall, Evelyn after giving all the children (including her husband) a once over she took a pinch of floo powder and threw it into the fireplace before stepping in "Leaky Cauldron" she spoke out clearly using, they had chosen to use a less used entrance to Diagon Alley relative to the other floo connections. There was still a ten seconds delay as apparently someone else had already connected to the same fireplace before whoosh Evelyn disappeared.

The process repeated itself with Astoria and Daphne before Harry was left alone with John who quickly took hold of Harry's arm before he could grab his own floo powder "Harry, I don't know what will happen when people recognise you but I want you to promise that you won't use your animagus abilities unless you have no other options" he waited for Harry to nod before releasing his arm.

Harry always hated using the floo, not that he used it often, he could never keep himself orientated and landed on his face. This time was no different as Harry emerged from the fireplace in an inn it was almost as if he was flying for a second before "oomph" he had to pick himself up off the floor whilst the patrons of the inn laughed.

John followed about ten seconds later already knowing that Harry would have landed face down on the floor, Evelyn cast a quick spell on everyone as they emerged from the fireplace to clean off any soot.

The family quickly made their way towards the back exit of the pub Harry strategically placed in the middle of the group but alas they were stopped by the friendly bar keep who gave them a toothless smile "John, Evelyn, it's been a while and are these your lovely children?" there was a bit of a lisp in his speech "Hello Tom, yes the two girls are my daughters and the boy is my nephew. I'd love to stay and catch up but we have lots to do today" John replied his face surprisingly blank.

"Oh I won't keep you then. I hope your business goes well" and just like that Tom went back to cleaning up his establishment whilst the five of them managed to make it out the back door un-harassed.

The door lead out into a small courtyard surrounded by tall walls and an inconspicuous dustbin, John drawing out his wand said "Now watch closely" to all three children as Evelyn stood behind them. John who was standing next to the dustbin tapped the brick three up and two across from above said dustbin.

The brick that he tapped started a chain reaction where the wall started to fold back on itself the bricks seemed to be rearranging themselves without changing the thickness of the wall until there was an archway that led onto a cobbled street crowded with robe wearing shoppers moving from shop to shop.

Harry had gotten used to the magical world but he had never seen anything that screamed out magic as much as this street; there were shops on either side of the road with bright signs offering great bargains on items like eyes of newts (he made a note to visit that shop). All three of the children's heads moved back and forth taking in everything they could as they moved through the alley towards the bank.

The bank stood out from all the other shops as it came into view partway down Diagon Alley it was a multi-storeyed white marble building; they made their way over to the entrance where a goblin stood opening the bronze door for patrons.

There were often stories of how evil goblins were and if the guard holding open the door for them was anything to go off then he could well believe the stories.

They entered into a prosperously decorated entrance hallway which was flanked by two rows of high tables manned by more evil looking goblins with one goblin overseer sat at the end his table a right angle to the rest.

The group followed John to the nearest open teller who looked up annoyed from his ledger "What can Gringotts do for you today?" the teller asked in a very guttural voice "I'd like to make a withdrawal from my account" John replied no kindness in his voice as he slid a key onto the teller's desk.

After inspecting the key thoroughly the teller called out in a different language to one of the goblins manning the bank floor before addressing the group in front of him "Follow Toothmasher and he will lead you to your account" then as if they'd never existed the goblin went back to working on his ledgers.

They were led over to a cave lit with flaming torches quite a contrast to the entrance hall; Toothmasher called up a cart from the depths grabbing a lantern whilst the five of them squeezed into the mine cart. Adding the lantern to the cart Toothmasher too climbed in before the cart rolled off he offered words of advice to his passengers with a sadistic grin on his face "it's better to keep all limbs inside the cart until it has stopped."

The cart quickly gained speed twisting and turning of its own accord as Toothmasher wasn't steering; Daphne and Evelyn were holding onto the seats their knuckles white whilst Astoria and Harry whooped every time the cart suddenly dropped leaving them with butterflies in their stomachs, John just sat calmly his face still blank.

Meanwhile as the group went into the depths of Gringotts a letter made its way via owl to the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts the complex wards automatically registering the positive reply and adding Harry's name to the list of students attending.

It wouldn't be until Dumbledore received a list of all those attending the new school year before he realised that he still had hold of Harry's vault key under the belief that Harry was still living with the Dursleys and Petunia knew how to get to Diagon Alley, he decided he'd return the key via Harry's head of house whoever that would be…

After the cart ride had ended John had climbed out whilst the others waited in the cart not wanting to clamber out and back in again, Harry caught a glimpse of gold from within the vault lit by dim torches before John re-emerged and climbed back into the cart everyone turning round before they took off back to the entrance hall at breakneck speeds.

Evelyn and her eldest daughter took in a deep breath of fresh air as they made their way out of Gringotts happy to see the sky again even if the sun was hidden behind clouds (this is the UK). Harry's eyes wandered over to another alleyway that branched off from the main road a black iron archway with writing on it pronounced it as Knockturn Alley.

"We'll have to backtrack a bit but we should start at the cauldron shop by the entrance to the alley and move our way down to end up at Ollivander's wand shop" John said taking hold of Astoria's hand whilst Evelyn took Harry's and Daphne's before they started weaving their way through the other shoppers back to the entrance of Diagon Alley where there was a small shop with a wooden cauldron sign hanging above the door.

The shop was not the most interesting one on Diagon Alley as all it contained was cauldrons of all makes, though the gold one was interesting. Daphne and Harry quickly picked up two pewter cauldrons from a pile close to the door before going to pay with the money John had given them both, they both had cauldrons at home already but they were too big to be dragging around the school.

After a quick trip to the apothecary to top up on the supplies they already had Daphne went into Eeylops Owl Emporium to buy treats for Mercury whilst Evelyn waited outside for her, the rest of the group went across the street to look in Quality Quidditch Supplies. Harry had never been on a broom but he had followed a couple of game of Quidditch on the Wizarding Wireless and was interested to see how flying on a broom compared to flying in his animagus form.

When Evelyn and Daphne caught up with the others they moved down to the stationary shop where they re-supplied on quills, Harry had thought about using his own feathers as he was the only one that could touch them without being shocked but after trying to pull out a feather with the blinding pain he decided to call it quits and none had fallen out since his first transformation though that might be because he's never stayed in his animagus form that long since then.

Flourish and Blott's followed the stationary store, John quickly made a pile of the required books on the counter whilst the rest of his family plus Harry browsed through the books on display, though Astoria was looking more amongst the fictional books.

Evelyn let them sneak a couple charms and transfiguration books onto the pile of books that John had been building when he wasn't looking; Astoria too was allowed to add The Adventures of the Misadventurous Potions Master to the pile.

The two pre-teens were grateful that most stores automatically placed Featherlight charms and shrank the items they sold or their arms would have 'fallen off' by now carrying what was about half their weight in books and the cobbled street wasn't helping.

Madam Malkin's was their next destination as the group bustled in through the door a chime went off letting the proprietor know she had customers "Welcome to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasion, what can I fit you for" a young assistant said coming up to the group, Evelyn motion to the two older children "We need robes fitted for these two who start Hogwarts this year."

"Okay, please can you wait a while I go and check to see if our other customers have been finished, they are starting Hogwarts this year too" she whispered at the end as if she was telling a big secret before heading into the back room.

It was but a moment before she re-appeared followed soon by two families, John and Evelyn recognized them as they two groups were passing they offered up a greeting "Mr and Mrs Bones a pleasure, to you too Mr and Mrs Abbott" John greeted them.

The name Bones brought Harry to a halt as he took another look at them before speaking up "Are you related to Amelia Bones?" this brought the attention of the whole group onto Harry, when the adults saw his eyes theirs instantly flicked up to his forehead before there was a couple of gasps from the younger girls.

One of the two men a red head turned back to John "Well this is unexpected, I'd love to know how you ended in Diagon Alley with Harry Potter" at the mention of his name Harry shrank back a bit behind Evelyn to get him away from the attention "You should ask your sister Luis she was the one who brought him to us" with a short nod John led his group into the back of the store whilst all eyes followed them.

John knew that they'd been lucky so far but it was only a matter of time before someone recognised Harry and he knew that neither the Bones nor Abbotts would tell anybody until they had spoken to Amelia but the shop assistant on the other hand...

After both children had been fitted and the school robes paid for they fortunately only had one more shop to visit and it was the one that both new students were looking forward to the most Ollivander's wand shop. The five now somewhat weary shoppers quickly made their way there knowing it was only a matter of time before the news spread that Harry was in Diagon Alley.

Ollivander's was in a word old, there was one wand on a pillow in display in the window and the interior looked dusty and run down, another charm went off as they entered what appeared to be a deserted room.

The three children shivered as they crossed the threshold of the shop as if the wands could feel the presence of their counterparts.

"Greetings Evelyn, John and these must be your children…?" he was introduced to the two girls before "Oh Mr Potter I've been expecting you…well ladies first" Ollivander took a tape measure from his pocket "So which hand do you use my dear?" he motioned to Daphne.

Daphne raised an eyebrow before holding out her right arm only for it to be grabbed by the eccentric old man as he started taking measurement before wandering off to one of the shelves and taking a wand out of the hundreds on the walls he turned around "that's enough" the tape measure that had been measuring on its own rolled itself back up before falling to the floor.

Opening the wand box "Hawthorn ten and a half inches with unicorn tail" Daphne looked it over "Well go on give it a wave" Ollivander prompted, Daphne reached into the box and grabbed the wand her finger automatically going into the correct grip. Ollivander whipped it out of her hands before she could try casting "Close but no and you seem to have experience with a wand already?" he stood there expectantly.

Reaching into her pocket Daphne brought out her fake wand knowing they'd not done anything wrong showed it to Ollivander who took it for a second before handing it back "Interesting, that's not a bad idea and it skirts the law quite well…" he wandered back to the wall pick up another box close to from where he got the first, three more wands later "birch ten and a half inches with a unicorn hair core" he held out another wand to Daphne this one white in colour.

Grabbing it Daphne knew instantly that this was her wand as a warmth flowed throughout her body, it felt as if she had just found a part of herself she had always been missing. Giving it a wave like she had the others (that Ollivander let her) a light shot out from the end silvery in colour.

There was a round of applause from everyone in the shop before Ollivander turned to Harry who promptly held out his right arm and the process began again only this time it wasn't as easy as it seemed that none of the wands were destined to be Harry's.

As the pile of wands that Harry tried grew the more excited Mr Ollivander seemed to become before he stopped in thought "I wonder, I wonder" he started talking to himself as he wandered into the back of the shop where still more wands lay, the excitement had worn off and Harry was starting to worry that maybe there wasn't a wand for him.

Coming back into the room with a box that looked aged "eleven inches made of holly with a phoenix feather core" he opened the box to show Harry, the wand was bordering on red. As Harry picked it up there was a reaction but it wasn't the one Ollivander expected as the wand sent out a spark of light there was a corresponding spark that came from Harry's chest.

Quickly repossessing the wand Ollivander checked it over for any damage before asking "Mr Potter would it be okay for me to see the objects that's around your neck?"

Harry turned to John who gave him a nod to go ahead. Reaching up to his collar he pulled at a chain attached around his neck until a blue feather was pulled from within his robes.

Ollivander gave out a gasp of surprise his hand covering his mouth eyes wide "Mr Potter do you realise what you hold around your neck?" receiving a shrug in response Ollivander continued "Mr Potter that is a feather of a magical bird that has long since believed to be extinct a bird that held similar renown as the phoenix. It was known as a Thunderbird and I believe that is one of only two feathers in existence today."

The wand maker was getting even more excited "I have to know how you handle it as the other one which I acquired from the ministry four years ago after they'd finished doing their tests on it was most uncompromising on who it shocked."

Harry had completely forgotten that healer Burns had taken the other feather that had fallen off of him during the first transformation and he found it unbelievable that the old wand maker could have gotten hold of it. Another shrug later, thinking stranger things have happened in the world of magic, and a slightly disgruntled wand maker went into his back room again.

"Eleven inches made of yew with thunderbird feather core" he said holding the box with great care almost unwilling to let it go. As Harry took the wand his whole body lit up in sparks for a few seconds before going back to normal. There was another round of applause from the Greengrass family now really looking forward to heading home after waiting just over an hour to find Harry's wand.

"Interesting, I have no idea what that wand is capable of but it will be interesting to find out" Ollivander made his way around the desk "that will be eight galleons for the young lady and twelve for Mr Potter please."

After settling with Mr Ollivander the whole group started to make their way back to the Leaky Cauldron, it quickly became apparent that news about Harry had spread as people were pointing him out to their friends and all eyes were on the group as they moved.

Deciding that speed would be better than stealth now John detoured to the local floo access for the Alley before someone picked up the courage to approach them, his family followed close behind him.

There were a few points throughout the Alley where you could apparate from and next to these points there were stores that allowed people to floo through them, the closest one to them was a joke shop Gambol & Japes. Moving quickly into the shop the family moved towards the back corner where a fireplace sat away from the merchandise a metal tin on top with a small money shaped slot on cut into it.

The group mostly ignored the shop though a couple of items left Harry and Astoria wishing they could browse as John placed some money into the metal tin on top of fireplace floo powder being dispensed directly into the fire "Alright Harry first..." John almost pushed the green eyed child into the fire.

With a cry of "Axminster Manor" Harry was on his way back home to be thrown out onto his face on the other end of the fire, this was made worse after he stood up as he was again knocked over this time by Shiva who licked his face a couple of times in greeting with her surprisingly cold tongue.

In the end there was no trouble with everyone getting back home without being accosted by rabid fans much to everyone's relief and after a quiet tea which went down fast after they'd missed lunch the whole family turned in early for the night their feet aching from all the standing they'd done that day.

The next day started off normally until the owls appeared bearing letter welcoming Harry back into the wizarding world and the Daily Prophet had a small article about him being spotted, thankfully it didn't mention the Greengrass family at all and there wasn't a picture.

They later received a floo call from Amelia saying that her brother had enquired how Harry had ended up in their company and not to worry as it was only a matter of time before it came out and they were well past the expected time by a few years.

Apart from the owls life went on normally at home, they'd gotten the rest of the supplies needed for Hogwarts from around the house like the crystal phials and brass scales. The trunks were retrieved from the cellar by one of the house elves as well as the telescopes.

There was a building excitement in the house as the month went by broken shortly by Harry's eleventh birthday where he received a couple of books and a Quick Quill Notes; a quill that writes down everything that's said clearly within a thirty foot radius. His photo album had a couple more pictures added to it from the day the book almost half full already.

The two pre-teens were now anxious to go to Hogwarts where they would be allowed to use their wands and cast real spells, the temptation to try a few spell was killing them especially as their lessons continued.

Eventually the first of September rolled around and Harry awoke to Shiva now a similar size to a Maine Coon lying on her back over to top of his legs she gave meow in greeting to him as he moved though her calls had started sounding more tiger like recently, luckily he knew tigers were cats so there shouldn't be a problem taking her to Hogwarts right?

Shifting Shiva off his lap much to her protest he quickly got dressed before going back to bed and stroking Shiva's belly, she purred for a few minutes then promptly drifted back to sleep.

With the menace out the way for the time being Harry headed off for breakfast where everyone except Astoria were already sitting at the table eating, helping himself to some cereal with a spoonful of sugar added on top to sweeten it he dug in. It was about nine o'clock that Astoria joined them at the table, whilst she ate Evelyn made sure Daphne and Harry had remembered to pack everything (underwear included).

After Astoria had finished they only had one task left to do before they left for the station and that was to put their pets into their cages.

It took Daphne all of a minute to go and retrieve Mercury whereas as soon as Harry picked up his cage Shiva decided to make a quick exit from his room with Harry following behind. Luckily for him Shiva did relent in the end when it became apparent that he wasn't going to give up and he offered her several treats.

The smug look on Daphne's face left him scowling as John enchanted their trunks to be feather light, the adults each took a trunk whilst the two children carried their pets leaving Astoria with nothing to carry.

The adults had chosen to take the knight bus as they thought it would be cruel to take the floo with the pets and apparition wasn't much better so they all made their way out the front of the manor and walked about ten minutes until they reached a gate at the edge of the property, quickly moving through the gate they ended up on a normal muggle country road.

Evelyn held her wand in the air as if calling a taxi and ***bang*** a triple decker purple bus appeared almost straight in front of them making them all take a step back.

The door of the bus opened an acne riddled teen appearing on the steps "Welcome to the Knight Bus emergency transport for the witch or Wizard in need, I'm Stan Shunpike your conductor" he read off a card before looking at the group.

"So where to?" he asked not even taking note of the trunks or the fact that the bus was mostly full of students "Kings Cross station please" intoned John, after a quick calculation using his fingers "that'll be three galleons and four sickles but for" that was as far as he got before John paid him and ushered everyone on-board.

The bus had seats not fixed down haphazardly arranged inside mostly full of students with their parents. Finding a couple of empty seats whilst holding onto the luggage tightly the group sat down just in time as the bus shot off breaking the sound barrier easily in seconds the seats and their occupants were thrown backwards.

Harry knew he would have a lot of apologising to do to Shiva when he let her out the cage, well if he didn't want to wake up frozen every morning. The bus picked up a couple more families as the passengers watched objects jump out of the bus's path, it finally stopped outside Kings Cross station and there was a stampede of people trying to get off the bus as fast as they could.

Waiting till almost everyone else was off first the Greengrass family and Harry too exited the bus and as everyone else was grateful to be on solid ground again.

Quickly finding a luggage trolley the trunks were placed on it and the two pets gently placed on top. They slowly made their way towards platform nine still half an hour before eleven drawing attention from the muggles as Shiva was hissing constantly to let them know of her displeasure.

As they walked John pushing the trolley Evelyn spoke to the three children "now listen up you three, to get onto the platform you have to pass through a pillar between platforms nine and ten. I'll go first with Daphne and Astoria; John will follow with you Harry."

Once they'd reached platform nine Evelyn took hold of her two daughter's hands and led them towards one of the pillars just past half way down the platform, Harry kept a close eye on them trying to see what happened but just as they reached the barrier a group of muggles blocked his view.

John moved to his side "There is an enchantment on the archway that stops most people from seeing people go through onto the platform, it's a very advanced piece of magic as most enchantments are. Well come on lets go before they start wondering what we're up to, grab hold of the handle" as John told him to Harry grabbed the trolley's handle and they both made their way to platform nine and three quarters.

As they hit the barrier that separated the muggle world from the magical one Harry expected there to be some sort of resistance but they slid through it as though it wasn't even there.

They came upon a platform full of children wandering about the platform to find their friends whilst parents said tearful goodbyes, cats were running free between everyone's legs and cries of owls were heard from everywhere. There in all its glory was a red steam train with gold lettering on the front proudly declaring it the 'Hogwarts Express'.

John led him over to where the rest of the family was; Evelyn had her arms wrapped around Daphne sobbing into her shoulder whilst Daphne had her own arms wrapped around her mother rubbing her back.

Astoria latched herself onto Harry when they'd reached them tears in her own eyes "I'll miss you Harry, write me every week all right?" she said trying to be stern but her sniffling spoiled the effect.

When he was released by Astoria a sobbing Evelyn grabbed hold of him bringing him to her chest arms wrapped firmly around him "I'm going to miss you so much" he could hardly understand what she was saying between her sobs "Don't worry we'll be back before you know it" he tried to reassure her but he was starting to get a bit upset himself now.

He was rescued by John who took hold of his wife drawing her into his own arms allowing Harry to escape. Giving one last farewell to their family they moved onto the train carrying stowing their pets in a compartment before coming back and picking up their still enchanted trunks with another last goodbye they boarded the train.

The first thing Harry did once the compartment door was closed and he'd sat near the window was let Shiva out of her cage; she stalked out took one look at Harry before turning her back to him and taking a few steps away and lying down, it was moments later before she started kicking him with her back feet pushing him more into the wall.

Now right next to the window Daphne sitting opposite him he started to stroke Shiva to settle her down while both children looked out onto the platform at their family who stood Evelyn still crying in John's arms whilst Astoria stood in front of them.

He noticed an overweight red haired woman and a rabble of similarly hair coloured children that burst through the barrier onto the platform in a hurry to make it in before the train set off.

It was not long before their compartment door was opened by another student a young girl obviously another first year "Daphne, its' been forever" she said as she dragged her luggage in behind her before heaving it onto the netting above their heads before Harry even had a chance to stand and help; she promptly took her place beside Daphne.

"So this is your elusive secret friend that's been living with you for the last six years?" she said her eyes taking in everything about Harry his scar was not in her line of sight. Daphne gave out a sigh "Tracey this is Harry, Harry this is Tracey Davis."

Tracey was a pretty short brown haired girl with brown eyes and it seemed a personality that matched Astoria's more than Daphne's. Harry offered his hand to her and they quickly shook, then her eyes widened before she turned back to Daphne.

"You could have told me you were living with Harry Potter, what kind of a friend are you?" Daphne didn't bother responding just turning to look out the window again. Tracey stood up to sit next to Harry instead but promptly sat back down taking note of the giant cat snoozing next to him.

There was whistle that blew sounding throughout the platform and the train started to slowly roll forward, Tracey stood once again to wave goodbye to her mother who had dropped her off whilst Harry and Daphne leaned over watching as their family as they rolled out of sight. The Hogwarts Express picked up speed whisking another group of magical students to Hogwarts…

* * *

><p>For those of you who think Harry is too much like a brother to Daphne to become her lover I apologise but it's up to the voters and as long as they're not blood related I don't see a problem with it…but maybe your right and I should pair him with Molly Weasley…<p>

I too would prefer Harry to only have one partner but I said I'd leave it to the voters so I will (I foresee drama in the future)

I know they didn't receive a ticket for the train but except for the one Hagrid gave Harry in the first year I don't think they are mentioned or necessary

I had a thought of writing a story where in the Graveyard fourth year Harry called the night bus in his duel with Riddle... maybe when this one is finished I'll do a comedy or someone else could do it?

Thank you for reviewing


	6. Chapter 6: Talking Hats & Flaming Birds

I might look for a Beta soon but if anyone wants the job let me know

* * *

><p><strong>Talking Hats and Flaming Birds<strong>

Sitting back into his seat as the platform moved into the distance Harry watched the scenery outside the window pass by as the train moved out of London into the countryside his hand continuing to idly stroke Shiva's stomach whilst she twitched asleep.

Tracey wanting to talk to Harry but not knowing how to start a conversation reached over to stroke Shiva as well; she began to nervously rub the giant cat between its front two legs only to let out a scream as its paws closed around her arm keeping her in place.

Blue eyes sprang open at Tracey's high pitched scream a growl escaping from behind a row of sharp teeth but Shiva settled down with Harry's voice "Hush hush. Tracey relax she won't hurt you" there was whine of protest from Shiva which turned into a purr as Harry vigorously scratched her tummy.

A bit embarrassed Tracey never the less started talking to Harry starting off asking questions about Shiva before moving on to home life telling him about her own life so far as well, meanwhile Daphne had taken a book from her trunk tuning out the world around her as she read on.

Tracey was half-way through a story about one of the times Daphne had come to visit her when the door of the compartment was opened by a bushy haired first year witch already dressed in her Hogwarts robes, followed at a slight distance by a nervous first year boy who was on the border of overweight.

"Excuse me, I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger" she motioned to the boy behind her "and this is Neville, his toad has gone missing and I was helping him look for it have you seen one?" she spoke quickly before taking a look around the compartment "Is that a tiger? I don't think that is allowed" Ms Granger cried out taking a strategic step back from the door as she spotted Shiva who was now resting with her head on Tracey's lap.

"It's a cat isn't it?" Harry answered smartly with a question of his own, Hermione hands on hips gave him a 'humph' before storming out the door forgetting about the reason she came to the compartment in the first place, Neville followed after an apologetic wave. Snorting Harry turned back to Tracey to listen to the rest of the story.

The next interruption came in the form of an old lady pushing a trolley "anything sweet for you, dears?" she asked, after a no from everyone and a kick from Shiva Harry bought a couple of chocolate frogs.

After the lady with the trolley had moved on he once more closed the door before crouching in front of it, Shiva for the first time since the train started moving stood up and jumped down onto the floor the opposite end to Harry; crouching onto her front legs her rear waving back and forth.

Daphne seeing what was going to happen quickly brought her feet up onto the bench Tracey mimicking a moment later. Placing one of the chocolate frog boxes in front of him Harry looked towards his pet for a second to build suspense "Ready?" before ripping it open. The chocolate frog became animated the moment the box opened and made a giant leap for freedom only to be snatched out of the air by a paw, Shiva again lying down this time with the chocolate frog between her paws licked away at it happily.

Harry grabbed one of his more advanced potions books on his way back to his seat (side stepping Shiva) but before he could even sit the door once more swung open.

As he was turning to face the next guest there was a squeal before the door was slammed closed, he managed to turn around in time to catch three boys retreating into the distance. Wondering what that was all about until he noticed Shiva sitting there licking her chops obviously quite pleased with herself, shrugging Harry just sat down and was soon engrossed in his book.

There were no more interruptions as the train continued its journey north into Scotland the sun starting to set behind the hills throwing the compartment into an orange and gold colour.

When Harry next looked up from his book as the lights of the carriage went from off to on without so much as the flicker you'd expect in muggle lighting he noticed a couple of pupils already wearing their school uniform passing in the corridor.

"Do you think we should change?" he got the attention of the two girls who looked out into the hallway "Okay why don't you wait outside whilst we change" Tracey responded not giving him much of an option as she started pushing him.

He just managed to grab his own uniform on the way out not too modest about changing in the hallway as the door closed behind him the blinds pulled down, it took him just over a minute to strip down to his boxers and dress in his new school uniform unfortunately by the time the girls had finished getting changed he'd been standing out in the hallway for nearly ten minutes the sun having now truly disappeared behind the hills.

"Jeez what took you so long" probably wasn't the best of things Harry could have said when he was let back into the carriage as the looks he got from the two girls made him want to go and stand in the corridor again, he would have too if his pride didn't get in the way.

The train started to slow down reaching the last leg of its journey, if they'd been inclined to they would have been able to see the lights of the station in the distance, a tone sounded throughout the train "We will be arriving soon please leave all luggage on the train, it will be taken up to the school separately" a voice presumably the drivers echoed all around.

The brakes of the train were pulled causing it to jerk a little as the train slowed at a much faster pace until it stopped at the small station. There was a mad rush for the exit by most of the students leaving the train.

As the stream of students slowed to a trickle the three made their way off the train wrapping themselves in their robes due to the cold September air, Shiva followed a few steps behind causing people to jump out of her way as they passed.

"First years over here, anymore first years" caught their attention as a giant of a man holding a lantern called out across the station surrounded by a growing bunch of nervous first year students, he shone the light over them as they made their way towards him.

The giant took a stride equal to three other men towards them and leaned over "lad it mightn't be a good idea for the cat to come with us as we'll be crossing a lake, why don't you send it up ahead" he whispered loudly pointing towards the carriages that the older students were taking.

Kneeling in front of Shiva and wrapping his arms around her neck he whispered in her ear receiving a small whine of protest in return before standing back up, Shiva turned around and bolted off up the dirt path the carriages were taking causing panic amongst the students as she ran past them.

There was a guffaw from the giant "What a beauty, shame I'm allergic to 'em" before he went back to gathering first year students again. Once he was happy he had them all he lead them down a small dirt path at the edge of a forest that let only a few beams of light from the moon two thirds full between the branches.

From the front of the column of first years there was a shout "just round this bend 'ere you'll get your first view of Hogwarts" followed by a long ooh from the rabble of first years as the majestic castle came into sight.

Harry too was impressed, Hogwarts was the perfect setting for a magical school as when most people think of magic they tend to think of the Middle Ages where knights roamed the land and the castle lit up in the distance using hundreds of candles was picture perfect as the type of place a knight would live but at the same time it gave a feeling of something more as an almost magical taste permeated the air.

Soon after everyone had gotten their first look at the school they would be living at for most part of the next seven years they were ushered forward until the forest opened out onto a gravelled shore of a small lake only about half a mile in diameter being overlooked by the castle and its grounds.

At the edge of the lake a fleet of small rowing boats were resting gently against the shore "no more than four to a boat" the giant called out to the group, there was a scramble as the first years all tried to get a boat with their friends.

Harry and the two girls were joined by a tall redheaded boy that if Harry remembered correctly was amongst the big group of redheads that was almost late onto the train, the redhead sat next to Harry and introduced himself as "Ron Weasley" as he pointed to himself, Harry being polite introduced himself "Harry Potter."

Ron just sat there staring at Harry for a minute until a call of "forwards" from the giant, who had a whole boat to himself, caused the fleet to move without any visible propulsion through the water "Are you really?" the young redhead asked.

Harry rolling his eyes looked out over the surface of the lake ignoring Ron who seemed enamoured with him, he was glad the trip didn't last long as the young Weasley had just asked if he could see his scar like he was some sort of zoo exhibit.

The Giant once more called out to the first years as his boat, which sat lower in the water than any other; hit the entrance to a cave covered in ivy "heads down." Everyone ducked as they reached the cave entrance even if there was still a several foot gap between the tallest child and the roof of the cave.

The inside of the cave quickly expanded onto another shore, a wooden jetty sticking out across the water, the boats all docking neatly became as stable as the dock they were connected to allowing the children to jump out without trouble.

After a short trek up a few wooden steps and a small dirt pathway they reached a double oaken door that made the giant of a man look small; knocking twice on the door the giant stood waiting patiently.

Half of the giant double door opened silently an impossible feat without magic especially as there was only one person on the other side of the door and it most likely weighed several times her own weight.

"The first year's professor" the giant said sheepishly as if he was under her scrutiny and Harry could understand as the woman made him feel as if he'd done something wrong as her eyes swept across him and to each of the other new students "thank you Hagrid" she spoke with a slight Scottish burr which she'd obviously worked hard to get rid of.

Sweeping the children into the entrance hall, which made the Greengrass's one look small in comparison; it had a grand staircase opposite the front doors, on the right was another set of double doors where the rest of the students could be heard apparently not having to take a scenic route.

They were led through another door next to the staircase on the opposite side from the double doors where the student body resided. The 'professor' after ushering them all into the room turned to the group of first years her stern expression relaxing slightly.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, I am Professor McGonagall you're soon to be transfiguration teacher and deputy headmistress as well as the head of Gryffindor house. During your stay here you will be sorted into one of four houses these four houses are: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. If you do well in your studies then you will be awarded house points any rule breaking and you will lose points, I sincerely hope that if you are sorted into Gryffindor that you will be a positive influence" the strict professor said whilst her eyes fixed onto each student to make sure her point sank in.

"I will be a minute checking to see if they are ready for you, I suggest you take this time to make sure you are presentable" McGonagall said giving pointed looks to certain students who's uniform wasn't up to her standards robes not buttoned up or other students like Ron who had some dirt on his nose.

As the professor left the room chatter instantly broke out across the different groups of students wandering how they got sorted into different houses. Harry though was not worried he knew that they wouldn't be required to cast any spell for the test after all you're not supposed to learn magic before you come to Hogwarts and growing up with the Greengrass girls he was more than used to magic so as not to question whether he was a wizard or not.

"My brothers told me that you have to wrestle a troll and they sort you on how well you do" Ron piped in, Harry couldn't help himself as he burst out into laughter drawing the attention of all the students as he leant on Daphne's shoulder for support.

A lot of the tension in the room disappeared as Harry laughed, especially after Daphne had shrugged him off and he had fallen over but was soon to return as some of the students at the back of the room screamed.

It barely took Harry a second to regain his feet his hands moving out in front to send a bolt of electricity at whatever caused the other first years to scream, dropping his hands quickly though when he saw the tell-tale translucent visage of the famous Hogwarts ghosts that had phased through the back wall.

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know he's not really even a ghost… I say, what are you all doing here?" a fancily dressed ghost asked the students closest to him, most of whom were still too shocked to answer "New Students, waiting to be sorted I suppose?" another ghost this one dressed as a monk (Friar) answered before the students could.

"Well I hope to see you in Hufflepuff, my old house you know" the Friar cheerfully said to the students before a cough from the entrance of the antechamber caught everyone's attention, seeing professor McGonagall at the entrance the ghosts quickly shot off through the front wall.

"It's time children form an orderly line" the professor ordered watching as the children pushed and pulled their way into something that resembled a line, Tracey managed to get to the front with Harry and Daphne just behind her much to the annoyance of Ron who wanted to stand next to Harry.

Another quick trip across the entrance hallway and through the double doors that were now suspiciously quiet the group of first years entered into a room that made the entrance hall look small; there were four tables running parallel to the door down the length of the hall and a fifth raised on a stage above and perpendicular to the rest. At the end of each of the four tables a different coloured flag with the animal representative of the founders decorating the wall.

Floating over the top of the tables were hundreds of candles lighting up the room as well as the stars which shone done through the roof as though it wasn't even there, the odd cloud obscuring the view a little "I've read about that in Hogwarts: A History, it's enchanted to look like the sky outside" came a bossy voice from somewhere behind Harry.

The first years were walked around the back and down the side of the table until they were next to the stage where the fifth table lay full of staff, McGonagall after telling them to wait moved off into an adjoining room before returning a moment later carrying a three legged stool and a filthy old hat.

Placing the stool on the stage with the hat on top McGonagall took a step back withdrawing a scroll from within her robes before staring at the hat, in fact Harry noticed that everyone seemed to be looking at the hat and not wanting to miss anything he turned in time to see a rip open up on the front ream before:

Oh you may not think me pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folks use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!*

The hat sang out to everybody even giving a bow to the four tables in front of it as it received applause and for some strange reason the only thought going through Harry's head was 'Why did they have to enchant it to be tone deaf?'

There was an angry protest from Ron "you mean all we have to do is try the bloody hat on, I'm going to kill Fred and George."

McGonagall opening up the scroll and holding it at arm's length "Abbott, Hannah" she read out, the blond haired girl he'd met in Diagon Alley stepped up onto the stage placing the hat over her head…there was silence for a few moments before the brim of the hat opened again "Hufflepuff" it yelled out to the whole hall. Placing the hat back onto the stool Hannah ran off to the table second closest to the waiting first years.

Susan Bones was the next one up only to follow her friend to the Hufflepuff table soon after; Harry had met Susan in Diagon Alley as well, she had red hair a kind face and was already starting to develop into the woman she'd become. Harry was keen to get to know her due to her Aunt.

Terry Boot was the next to be sorted and also the first new Ravenclaw, the Ravenclaw table clapped politely for their new member as he made his way to the table next to the Hufflepuff one.

Both Tracey and Daphne were sorted into Slytherin sitting at the table closest to the door…then the bossy girl Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor her nervous companion Neville joined her, though in his eagerness to get off the stage he ran off with the sorting hat and hat to return it amidst laughter.

As the sorting continued Harry started to notice that some students took a long time to be sorted and some were sorted almost instantly, Daphne's sorting had taken the longest so far nearly five minutes whereas one Draco Malfoy also Slytherin took less than a second (Harry wasn't sure if the hat even touched his head).

Finally "Potter, Harry" was called out, the nearly silent hall went completely silent for but a second before whispering spread across the hall "did she say Potter, the Harry Potter!" or variants could be heard throughout the hall.

Harry walked confidently up onto the stage placing the Sorting Hat onto his head as he sat; the last thing he could see as the rim covered his eyes was the students standing in their seats craning to get a better look at him.

There was silence inside the hat that seemed to last forever before he felt someone probing through his mind, using his Occlumency skills he quickly isolated the intruder before a voice that only he could hear spoke out "Mr Potter, it's hard to sort somebody if they don't allow me to see through their mind. There is no need to worry, unless you plan harm on another student, your mind is safe from me"

Harry was still a bit weary of allowing the hat through his Occlumency barriers, after all they're there for a reason, but the hat had been used for many a year without any obvious side effects "Hmm plenty of courage and oh my what a brain, loyal to your friends and what ambition you will go far in life…so where to put you…you would do well in Slytherin, it's all here yes Slytherin…so what do you think Mr Potter?"

"Aren't you the one that's supposed to tell me? Well I always thought it would be nice to be in Hufflepuff, nobody blames the Hufflepuffs."

"Yes that's true…well if you're sure then it better be SLYTHERIN" the last word was spoken out loud and before he could go and join his new house the hat had one more thing to say to him "call me tone deaf will you."

About half of the Slytherin table was clapping as Harry made his way over to sit next to Daphne the trimmings of his robes changing to green. The rest of the hall except Dumbledore who was also clapping loudly were staring at him as though he'd kicked their dog.

It took McGonagall three coughs before the students attention was drawn back to the sorting. Now that he'd been sorted and could relax Harry realised how hungry he truly was having not eaten anything proper since breakfast he was now hoping that the sorting would speed up a little so he finally get something in his stomach.

At last after Ronald Weasley was sorted into Gryffindor and throwing dirty looks his way there was only one student left a boy by the name Blaise Zabini who was promptly sorted into Slytherin. Now at the end of her list McGonagall rolled it up, picked up the hat and stool before taking them into the room she got them from before joining the other staff by sitting next to Dumbledore who resided in a throne like chair.

Dumbledore stood drawing attention to himself without effort "Welcome to Hogwarts or welcome back to those returning. I know you're all hungry so just a few word before you eat and here they are Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"** The famous headmaster spoke his hands sweeping the room on the last word.

Food enough to feed all the students twice over with a bit to spare appeared on the table ready for the hungry children to help themselves onto their golden plates. As the children (and staff) ate introductions were made between the new students and occasionally the older ones.

"Draco Malfoy" the blond boy sitting opposite to Harry introduced himself eagerly holding his hand out to shake, Harry taking it reluctantly not wanting to make enemies straight away "I think it's great that you're in Slytherin, wait till my father hears about this he was sure you'd been in Gryffindor instead of noble Slytherin. If you stay close to me Potter we'll be running this school in no time."

Giving a grim smile Harry replied "If it's okay with you Malfoy, I think I'll keep my options open for now and see how things progress in the next couple of weeks" he received a grin in answer "a proper Slytherin response, I'm sure we'll get along fine."

Before Harry knew what was going on he had been introduced to all of the first year Slytherins except Daphne and Tracey who he already knew; there were five other boys apart from him: Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. As for the girls along with Daphne and Tracey there was only two others Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode.

After all the first year Slytherins knew each other's names the talk turned to the teachers asking older students about them as they ate their desserts. They'd already met McGonagall and Dumbledore was obvious but their soon to be charms teacher was pointed out to them; he stood out from the rest being a half goblin called Flitwick.

Professor Snape who seemed to hate the world and was glaring at Harry introduced to them next as their head of house who favoured them over the other houses as well as being their potions teacher. He felt another mind probe his as he was looking in the potion teacher's direction and was quick to eliminate it.

The only other teachers they would be taught by this year were Professor Sinistra a young attractive witch who taught astronomy and Professor Quirrell who used to be the Muggle Studies professor but thought he'd try his hand at teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts (D.A.D.A).

Soon enough the desserts too disappeared, Dumbledore standing once more "Now a few notices, to the new students the Forbidden Forest is of course forbidden and a few of our older students would do well to remember that, there is also quite a substantial list of banned items on the caretaker Mr Filch's door. Mr Filch has also asked me to remind you that the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone who doesn't wish to die a most painful death!"

There were a couple of laughs that soon died down when it became apparent that he wasn't joking "and now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song, everyone pick their favourite tune and off we go!"

It soon became apparent how the sorting hat thought it had a good voice as the school children's singing could have woken the dead, much to his and most of the teachers relief the school song was short with Dumbledore conducting the last few notes to the twins at the Gryffindor table as they sang to a funeral march.

"Ah, music a magic beyond all we teach here" he wiped a tear from his eye. "Prefects if you'll lead your new students to their accommodation, Mr Potter a word if you please" Harry stayed sat as the rest of the hall emptied out worried about what the new headmaster wanted on the first night of the school year, he received several questioning looks as other students passed him nobody had ever been called out in the welcoming feast before.

As the last pupil left Harry made his way to the head table the teachers too throwing questioning looks at him "Professor Snape, if you'd come with us please" Dumbledore intoned as he stood and left through the same exit as the students Harry and Professor Snape, who was giving Harry evil looks, followed closely.

They ended up going up seven flights of steps before coming to a dead end with a statue of a gryphon blocking the way "Skittles" the headmaster said and the gryphon answered by coming alive and moving out the way to reveal a moving staircase.

The staircase lead up to an office obviously the headmaster's as he sat behind the desk. The office was full of odd knick knacks that only the headmaster knew what they did; Harry's attention was fast drawn away from them by a cat Harry knew only too well resting in front of the fireplace.

Now understanding why he'd been called here Harry relaxed a little, he knew he might still be in trouble but a least he knew what for. He had barely sat down when his attention was again drawn round the office this time by possible the most beautiful song he had heard in his life, the song made all his trouble seem distant his heart soaring...he almost transformed into his animagus form before he took control of himself. Dumbledore who had been watching him smiled at his reaction to the song, a flame appearing in the office to reveal a bird of majestic reds and oranges.

"This is Fawkes my familiar and long-time friend he's a phoenix… and talking about familiars you seem to have brought in an interesting one" Dumbledore said motioning to Shiva who had been awoken by Fawkes's song and was now stretching on the rug in front of the fire.

"The letter said we were allowed to bring a cat?" Harry was quickly on the defensive as his 'cat' came and rested her head and front paws on his lap. There was a snort from his head of house standing behind him "breaking the rules before you've even started classes Potter, that's a little arrogant don't you think...well I guess I'll just have to keep you in line during detention" Dumbledore held up his hand to stop the professor.

"I don't think that's necessary Severus, the frost tiger seems to be well trained and if Mr Potter can assure me that it's no danger to the students then I don't see why he can't keep it" there was a twinkle in the headmaster's eye as he spoke watching Harry caress Shiva's head lovingly.

"Headmaster, Shiva has been with me for over a year and has never hurt anybody. I've raised her since she was just a kitten so she is used to humans and knows better than to hurt people or other peoples pets" Harry knew there were other schools available that would love to teach 'Harry Potter' and he would go to them if they refused to let him keep Shiva but he would be severely disappointed if he couldn't go to the school his parents and step-parents had gone to.

"I'm surprised your Aunt would let you keep a tiger in a muggle neighbourhood" he received a tight smile from Harry which he misinterpreted "Then all I can say is welcome to Hogwarts Shiva" the eccentric headmaster spoke receiving a purr in response and a grunt of annoyance from his potions teacher.

"Well that is all I hope you enjoy your time here at Hogwarts Harry, Professor if you would be so kind as to show him to the common room" he dismissed them from his office and with a small bow of thanks Harry turned to leave.

Just as he reached the open door the headmaster called out to him "Before I forget there was one other thing" the headmaster tossed a small bag to him across the room "that contains the key to the trust account your parents left for you, I was going to get your head of house to give it to you but since your here..."

Harry's thoughts were all over the place as he Professor Snape and Shiva left the headmaster's office towards the Slytherin dorms.

* * *

><p>*Extract from Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone<p>

**It's fun to see people interpretations of what Dumbledore meant by saying these words

It is great seeing a lot of positive reviews, a couple negative but you can't please everybody.

The pairing will not be introduced until book four (three earliest though I doubt it)

For years now I've read fan fiction and the amazing (and not so amazing) stories have fed my dreams, I hope this story can do the same for other people.


	7. Chapter 7: Down in the Dungeons

I now have over 300 people with this story in their Alerts so I'd just like to say thanks for the support especially to those who reviewed, I do read them all and alter the story (since I have no plot) if I receive good recommendations.

* * *

><p><strong>Down in the Dungeons<strong>

Running to keep up with his head of house Harry wondered what he'd done to anger the man, not that he was going to ask he had no intention of drawing the man's ire even more the he apparently already had.

They had already made their way back down seven floors to the Entrance Hall and after taking the only other door he hadn't yet been through, which led to a hallway with classrooms on either side before alas more stairs leading down.

The deeper they went the darker and colder the corridors became, the torches held in sconces on the walls either side gave off a little light whilst throwing the rest of the passageway into a plethora of dancing shadows.

Professor Snape stopped and turned to a wall that at first to Harry looked exactly the same as the rest, then he noticed the way the light from torch on the wall opposite seemed to illuminate it more though he didn't have long to examine the wall before Snape called out "Dominance" revealing the entrance to the Slytherin common room.

As the wall swung out Snape turned his black eyes upon Harry "I'm sure even someone of your 'high' intelligence can find his way from here Potter" his head of house spoke to him raising his eyebrow as Shiva growled menacingly at him "Quite" the professor said before turning his robes billowing out behind him as he left Harry alone in the dungeon corridor.

Giving a reassuring pat along the side of Shiva's head Harry turned to the entrance which was throwing green light out into the hallway "well no point just standing here eh girl" Harry spoke to his familiar to reassure himself, he received a loud purr from the cat then Harry moved forward into the green light.

The common room held a low roof relatively speaking and the walls that could be seen were carved straight out of the rock with green banners covering most of them. The whole room was lit by green torches and one fireplace that provided enough warmth to make the room cosy, a magical window gave a view into the lake aquatic life swimming in front every so often. The furnishings were somewhat tasteless with green sofas and high back chairs spaced neatly around the rooms and skull ornaments placed across most of the flat surfaces.

Sitting in one of the high back chairs was Daphne who upon seeing Harry quickly sprung to her feet and moved to his side looking him over to see if he was missing any limbs "So what happened?" her gentle lilt washed over him.

"It appeared Dumbledore had a run in with Shiva and knew she was mine somehow" Harry responded barely restraining a yawn that threatened to split his face.

With her hands moving to her hips "well…?" she asked a slight rise in her eyebrow showing her annoyance, it took Harry a couple of seconds to realize what she was asking "Oh she's allowed to stay" he said an embarrassed grin on his face "Do you know where the first year boys dorms are?" he quickly changed the subject.

Giving out a small sigh as she rolled her eyes Daphne took hold of the sleeve on Harry's robe before dragging him out of the room through one of two archways; it was a passageway just wide enough for two people to pass each other without trouble or three if they squeezed, doors were on either side with numbers on them one through seven and an eighth blank one.

Daphne pulled Harry in front of the door with the number one engraved about a foot above their heads, though for some reason the door was near the middle of the other doors with numbers on. Daphne leaned in and gave Harry a quick hug "I'll see you tomorrow in the common room, sleep well" she whispered in his ear before moving swiftly back towards the common room.

Watching until he could no longer see his childhood friend Harry turned to the door and entered into a dormitory with six four poster beds with curtains on each, three each side in a row and a small table with built in book stand next to each bed. There were no windows but what appeared to be three sky lights in the roof and fireplace at the end which was the only thing that provided light for the room at the moment. There was another door at the back of the room which Harry assumed led to the bathroom.

At the end of each bed the student's trunks lay and he could hear snoring or fidgeting coming from five of the beds. Moving to the last un-occupied bed next to the fire with his trunk at the foot, he quickly retrieved his pyjamas before getting onto the bed and pulling the curtains to give himself a bit of privacy before changing and sliding under the covers carelessly dropping his dirty clothes off the end of his bed.

There was a rustle as his curtains moved before he felt a familiar weight rest across his feet warming them up.

Although Harry found the bed very comfortable he just couldn't get to sleep, it felt strange being away from those who he considered family. For comfort Harry reached for the feather still resting on his chest holding it between his hands until sleep eventually took embraced him.

Harry slept fitfully throughout the night; he dreamt of flying through a storm around Hogwarts in his animagus form with Fawkes perching on the front gates wings spread and calling out to him but he couldn't hear through the gusting wind.

As soon as Harry's eyes opened the next morning his dream was forgotten, as he rushed to relieve himself and get washed up ready for his first day of school, finishing in the bathroom he made his way back to get dressed a towel wrapped around his waist as he used a second to dry his hair.

He froze in the doorway between the bathroom and the bedroom as the group of first year boys stood in one corner of the room a barricade of chairs between them and Shiva who seemed to be teasing them. Knowing he had a bit of time before Shiva got bored and not really wanting to greet his dorm mates in a towel Harry first made his way to his bed picking up his freshly washed clothes to change into.

Dressed for the day with his wand in the robe pocket he finally took pity on the other first years and moved to Shiva's side he stroked her whilst speaking to the other boys "Guys this is Shiva she's my familiar and quite friendly…unless you try to hurt her or those she sees as family" he said with a smile on his face, the group of first years not quite so trusting stayed behind their barricade until the Shiva fell onto her back purring her legs twitching in the air.

Harry gave them all a chance to sneak around Shiva before letting out a chuckle "be a good girl" he spoke lovingly to her as he left the room to go find Daphne so they could find their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. Daphne it turned out was sitting in one of the high back chairs next to the fireplace a book open on her lap, Harry quickly pulling up another chair "Morning Daphne, ready for breakfast?" he asked.

Bookmarking her page she looked up at him "I said I'd wait for Tracey, you're free to go ahead if you want?" she asked already knowing his response of "I can wait" and wait he did for another half hour, a couple of his roommates passed on their way to breakfast looking as though they'd gotten dressed in a hurry much to his amusement.

He was explaining why he was amused to Daphne when Tracey finally decided to join them. The three wandered around the dungeons for nearly a quarter of an hour before they ran into an older student who was kind enough to give them direction and they finally made it to the Great Hall once more.

During his full English breakfast Harry had noticed a lot of the students were staring at him, they looked away whenever he looked in their direction but it was still obvious they were watching him.

As the rest of the students entered the hall and started dishing out their own breakfasts the four heads of houses moved down the tables handing out timetables to each of their students, Professor Snape stopped momentarily behind him as if debating something before dropping a first year schedule on his plate and moving on.

"I am not looking forward to his class he seems to really dislike me" Harry mumbled to himself it Draco who sat nearby let out a short laugh "Don't worry about Uncle Sev from what I heard he and your father didn't get along when they were in school and I'm sure you just remind him of your father, he'll get over it soon enough."

Looking down at his timetable he was grateful that he didn't have potions straight away and due to it being the first day of school classes only started in the afternoon which gave them a few hours to explore before they had to find the charms classroom.

After climbing a few stairways that had missing stairs or only went in one direction, Harry still couldn't get his head around that, and trying several doors that were walls just pretending to be doors or doors that needed tickling in a certain way the three had become more than a little lost.

"If I don't make it, make sure everyone knows I died saving your lives" Tracey cried out dramatically as they proceeded to become even more lost hoping that at some point they'd magically end up somewhere they knew or cross paths with someone else.

Trying one more door that was locked or wasn't really a door Harry had lost his temper and nearly blasted it out of his way; luckily for the door their diminutive charms teacher just happened to come round the door at that point "Can I help you?" he asked the three Slytherins in a high pitched voice.

"Professor!" the three shouted moving over to him "We're a bit lost sir" Tracey continued for the group breaking out into a nervous laugh. After checking his pocket watch the professor chuckled "Well it's almost lunch time why don't I walk you to the great hall" Tracey and Harry both stammered out their thanks as followed the surprisingly fast charms professor.

Having learnt their lesson they, much to the amusement of Professor Flitwick, followed him out the Great Hall toward the charms classroom after lunch. There was a double benefit in this as the Professor was easy to get along with telling them interesting stories about some of the paintings they passed "This is a picture of Boris the Wicked that created the disillusionment charm; he created it so he could sneak into the ladies baths; that's why the counter charm was created by a witch, of course we had to enchant his picture so he couldn't go wandering..."

Excited to finally be able to do magic Harry along with most of the other students were disappointed when they found out they wouldn't be doing magic for a while yet as most of their first classes focussed on safety as well a lecture on what they would learn.

Charms was their only lesson on Monday afternoon so after they'd been dismissed for the day, the three Slytherins again waited to follow the Professor to lead them back to the hall. Seeing the three waiting for him the Professor had a stroke of genius, summoning a compass from his office he tapped his wand against it a couple of times before moving over to the three.

"Mr Potter, Mrs Davies, Mrs Greengrass, if you keep following teachers everywhere you'll never learn your way around. I have a solution for you, it's not perfect but you will always be able to find your way with it" he handed Harry the compass "I have charmed this compass so that it always points to the Slytherin common room with it you can go exploring without having to worry about getting lost. I should warn you that the compass will only stay charmed for about a week so make the most of it whilst you can."

And they did whenever they had free time during the week using the compass several times they learnt as much about the castle as they could, learning about secret passages and where all their classrooms were, the library it turned out was easy to find and after going in if it wasn't for Tracey they wouldn't have left as the thousands of books on the different disciplines of magic filled the shelves.

Their second lesson was the one they were most looking forward to Defence Against the Dark Arts, unfortunately this turned out to be a joke as their teacher seemed to be afraid of his own shadow. His classroom smelling strongly of garlic to ward off vampires or so the rumours say. Professor Quirrell was also hard to understand as he stuttered through every word and jumped at every noise.

Transfiguration too was different as they made their way into the classroom, McGonagall suspiciously absent but a Maine Coon was sitting on the desk spectacle like markings around its eyes. Taking a closer look at the cat Harry stroked it behind its ears a couple of times before a thought crossed his mind "Hello Professor" he whispered to the cat not wanting to spoil the surprise for everyone else and took his seat in the front row.

Once all the Slytherins and Ravenclaws had taken their seats, Draco and his small group of friends sitting a few seats down from him, the cat jumped off the desk transforming mid-air into Professor McGonagall, she received applause from the students bringing their hopes up as to when they would learn that.

Once the applause stopped she gave a sharp passionate speech about her subject keeping everyone's attention on her with little trouble "Transfiguration is one of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts" she gave a pause to let this settle in "Anyone messing around will leave and not come back, you have been warned" then she proceeded turn her desk into a pig and back again.

They soon found out, though Harry and Daphne already knew, that they wouldn't be doing anything like that for a long time to come yet.

Each student was then given a match and told to change it into a needle; there are several reasons why this is the first piece of magic every student that goes through Hogwarts practices, there is little in the way of wand movements (just a jab), it requires little power and teachers students focus as well as how to send magic through their wands.

Harry was supremely confident that he would be able to complete this spell quickly after all he had already learnt to focus and had used his magic quite often using his lightning. He was therefore surprised after jabbing at his match there was still a match lying on his desk; looking at Daphne's match he was slightly relieved that she hadn't managed to change her match yet though after a second look it was slightly pointed at the end.

After jabbing his match a couple of more time working himself up a little as his match stubbornly refused to change whilst Daphne's was gaining a silver tint to hers, he sat back and took a deep breath and thought about why he couldn't do it. Eventually his thoughts went back to what happened at Ollivander's wand shop, he didn't know if it would work but he'd try anything at this stage.

Leaving his wand on the table next to the match Harry reached up to his neck and pulled out the feather that was tied around it placing it on the edge of the table before picking up his wand once more to try again, a couple of jabs later and he was quickly catching up to where Daphne was at much to his relief.

McGonagall attention had been drawn to Harry when he'd placed his wand on the table, she'd been hoping Harry would be in her house but she wouldn't hold it against the boy, becoming curious as he removed the feather from within his robes especially after his spell work had drastically improved.

In the end her curiosity won out and she moved to stand in front of him noticing that both his and Daphne's matches were now needles causing the edges of her mouth to split to lift into an almost smile.

Before she could ask any questions the bell rang signalling the end of lesson her students quickly starting to put their books in their bags "Mr Potter a word if you please" she talked quietly so that only Harry could hear.

After all the students made their way out the classroom leaving only Daphne and Tracey to stay behind with Harry, McGonagall eyed them for a while before deciding they could stay. Turning her attention on Harry "Mr Potter, I noticed you improved greatly after you removed that feather, if it's not too personal, I would be interested to know where that feather came from?"

Harry looked quickly to Daphne, which didn't go unnoticed by McGonagall, before he responded a little nervous "Professor, Mr Ollivander said it was a thunderbird feather the same as the core to my wand. I found it just resting on the floor when I was younger; I hear they're very rare."

"Thunderbird…? I've never heard of it, there might be something about them in the library though, if you're interested I'd try asking Madam Pince she'd probably be able to direct you to the relevant books" with a small smile the stern Professor dismissed the three Slytherin students.

That night Harry took off his feather again looking at it whilst stroking Shiva, it had been with him permanently since he found out about the magical world even after he had gained enough control not to need it anymore. Sighing he hung it around the headboard of his bed; it gave off a constant blue glow when he wasn't touching it.

Wednesday morning it was back to the charms classroom for their first practical application of charms, it was a simple colour changing charm that only lasted a few minutes Harry again comparing his work to Daphne's as both quickly learnt the spell.

All first years had the Wednesday afternoons off to make sure they weren't too tired for Astronomy in one of the tall towers at midnight.

That Wednesday afternoon Harry decided to take McGonagall's advice and made his way to the library to try and find out about his Animagus form. At the entrance to the library there was a desk to one side where one Irma Pince sat watching over her books. Making his way over he stood there for a second until she recognised his presence "Ma'am I'm looking for books on extinct magical animals, could you point me in the right direction please?"

She scowled at him as if judging his intentions then getting up she walked around the table and off into the rows upon rows of book Harry trailing a few steps behind her, upon reaching the right shelf she spoke quietly to him with clipped tones "Unless you are any more specific then everything on this shelf deals with extinct magical creatures" she motioned to the top shelf where about a hundred tome rested their spines pointing out.

"I'm looking for information about magical birds…" she took a couple of steps to her right before reaching out for a book and passing it over to him before making her way back to her desk.

Looking at the book 'Flying no More' he shook his head at the title and took the book to one of the open reading tables.

Flicking to the back of the book to the index he thumbed through to the page with the birds beginning Q's to T's, Quetzalcoatl…Roc…Thunderbird page one hundred and sixty eight to one hundred and seventy four.

Getting excited Harry flipped to the right page where he came across a picture of a familiar bird; there were several artist renditions of thunderbirds in the book with a little text describing abilities most of which Harry already knew as well as legends about the birds.

'?-Forty Nine CE (estimated)

The Thunderbird once ruled the skies in a time where there was much competition, although physically slightly smaller and weaker than the Roc its ability to control lightning gave it an advantage its competitors couldn't compete with. It normally nests high in the mountains but they have occasionally been known to roost near the seas where storms are more common. It has been noted that thunderbirds can move magically disappearing at one place and arriving at another in a bolt of lightning. Their downfall began when one Greek wizard known Hephaestus created a weapon (Thunder Bolt) from their feathers that went through all defences magical and mundane; it was later given to the wizard Zeus who used it for many years before his death, it is believed to be buried with him. After seeing the power of the Thunder Bolt many others wished to create a weapon of their own and hunted down thunderbirds in large groups, there was never any record of anyone creating anything as powerful as the Thunder Bolt. Hunting Thunderbirds was most dangerous: their lightning acted as both armour and sword, if their lightning failed an adult Thunderbirds claw could pick up a Hippogriff their beaks chew through any armour and if they became desperate could travel via lightning'

Closing the book and returning it to the shelf Harry thought about what he'd just read he'd forgotten long ago that he'd travelled via lightning and now that he remembered he planned to practice until it became as natural to him as throwing a lightning bolt.

He could hardly concentrate that night in Astronomy as Professor Sinistra taught them how to set up their telescopes properly, Daphne who noticed his absent expression cornered him afterwards making him explain to her and Tracey why he was so absent minded, not that Tracey knew why finding out about thunderbirds was so important at the moment.

Thursday was transfiguration in the mornings where he was they were all given a match again and after quickly transforming their matches to needles and back Professor McGonagall had them trying to see how fast they could do it then changing the design of the needle. Herbology in the afternoon was outside in one of the greenhouses, one of the less dangerous ones where the most harmful thing in there gave you a slight rash, it was taught by Professor Sprout who had forgotten more about plants than Harry had any intention of ever learning.

At tea that evening Harry with the help of Daphne wrote out a short letter to Evelyn and John as well as a slightly longer one to Astoria explaining all the amazing things they'd seen and done already, they were sure Astoria was going to be jealous, they sent Mercury who was in the school owlery out with their letters.

It wasn't until that night that Harry realised it was Friday tomorrow and his first potions lesson, he'd been avoiding Snape whenever he could as he always got hateful looks from the man but there'd be no avoiding it tomorrow…he wished he hadn't thought about it now as he was too nervous to sleep and it wasn't until several hours later that he finally dropped off.

Friday morning didn't start out well for Harry he'd woken up to see Draco trying to feed Shiva a rat most likely someone's pet, after a quick rescue he set the rat free hoping it was missing a toe before Draco found it. After that he'd been the last in line for the bathroom then Daphne gave him a look which he knew meant she was annoyed having to wait so long for him Tracey having already gone ahead for breakfast.

After his own hurried breakfast the three Slytherins made their way back to the dungeons for their first Potions lesson as well as their first class with the Gryffindors.

The tables in the dungeons were spaced out giving enough space for two people to work at one table, Harry had heard Professor Snape favoured Slytherins above the other houses but he knew Snape would make an exception form him. Daphne having heard about how Snape hated Harry's father was quick to grab a table with Tracey leaving Harry to partner with Draco.

Ronald Weasley was a Gryffindor without any true friends, he got on well enough with all the other Gryffindors but he had the problem of talking before he thought and he also had some very extreme points of view for example he thought everyone in Slytherin was a dark wizard or witch and everyone in Gryffindor was light, though he was not entirely to blame for this as he received his views from his mother.

When Harry had been sorted into Slytherin his whole world had been shook, how could Harry a hero and a pillar for the light be an evil Slytherin. To rationalize this he had one of two options either not all Slytherins were evil or Harry was and his mind was made up when he walked into the potions classroom only to see Harry chatting amicably with Draco Malfoy the most evil of all Slytherins minus You-Know-Who of course but it was close.

"Already gathering followers Potter" the young Weasley called out across the classroom his face turning red in anger.

Harry looked at Draco then around the room before shrugging his shoulders "Nice to see you too Ronald" there was a spattering of laughter around the room making Weasley turn a little more red he opened his mouth to reply but Professor Snape took that time to sweep in his cloak billowing behind him.

He moved swiftly to the front of the class his beady black eyes sweeping the room from the Slytherin side to the Gryffindor one before speaking in a whisper that carried the classroom over every word precise and elegant.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death… if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

There was only one person that reacted to the speech Hermione Granger the muggle born girl who seemed to have something to prove to the world sat up straighter in her seat ready to prove she wasn't a dunderhead.

Professor Snape took the register reading through the names until he came to Harry's "Potter" Snape spat out seeing him sat next to Draco he swallowed what he was going to say after all Harry was a Slytherin and they were in class with Gryffindors so he finished off the register without baiting his student, well this time anyway he didn't want to appear obtuse to his snakes.

"Weasley, Tell me what would I get if I add powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Hermione's hand shot into the air as Snape asked Ron, after receiving no answer from the redhead Snape turned to the Slytherin side of the room "Mr Potter how about you, care to answer?"

"Draught of the living dead sir" Harry answered quietly knowing he wasn't supposed to know the answer "Correct" Snape drawled reluctantly "Tell me Mr Potter what is the only potion that uses Peruvian Vipertooth blood?" he continued his questioning making them more difficult.

Although Harry had already had potions lessons from Evelyn who because of her career as a healer needed to more than a little good at potions he still didn't know everything there was to know about the subject which a lot of people spent most of their lives learning about whilst still only scratching the surface.

"I don't know sir, I'm sure it's not a first year potion though" Harry answered.

"Not a first year potion you say, well forgive me for teaching my students about potions they won't have to brew this year. Perhaps I should teach you separately from the other students to make sure you don't learn anything not on the syllabus Mr Potter. Peruvian Vipertooth, a poisonous dragon, its blood is used in a potions called 'Dante's Salvation' a potion that renders the drinker immune to all flames no matter the source even dragons flame, it is many a wizard folly to believe that the flame freezing charm works on all types of fire. Well why aren't you writing this down?"

Harry let out a sigh of relief as Snape's went into a lecture; he'd avoided punishment for the time being. Harry reached into his back taking out a spare roll of parchment he quickly wrote down everything Snape said, mostly about safety and different cutting techniques.

After his lecture Snape turned around and waved his wand instructions for a potion to help with bee stings appearing on the board "Any potions supplies not on the list you were given at the beginning of the year will be in the cupboard" he motioned with his hand to a built in cupboard at one side of the room.

The potion was so simple Harry could have brewed it with his feet, not that he'd try with Snape breathing down his neck, and at the end of the lesson he and most of the Slytherins had a perfectly brewed potion whereas one of the Gryffindors had somehow managed to melt his cauldron and the rest were muttering curses under their breaths except for Miss Granger who also had also managed to brew a perfect potion.

The one thing Harry had in common with the Gryffindors when the lesson ended was that he too was happy to out from under Snape's hooked nose.

After tea and a couple of hours doing homework; on the first week! Harry was finally free to do whatever he wanted for the weekend and his first order of business was to try travelling via lightning he just needed to find somewhere secluded to practice.

* * *

><p>If anyone has any ideas about how Harry will get Hermione's time turner without becoming her friend please let me know as I really want to try my hand a time turner script<p>

regularhp: thanks for the review, I will try to not to skip little details even if they are not important to the story.

Eljin1: I added a section in describing thunderbirds like you recommended, good idea

Please review


End file.
